Poland banks on national hero on capital's great day out

Racing in Poland has a rich heritage dating back more than two centuries, just about surviving two world wars and decades of Communist austerity. Frivolous bourgeois pastime the sport may have been, but that didn't prevent crowds of 30,000 attending major racedays during that particular era at Sluzewiec racecourse, about six miles directly south of Warsaw city centre. It was the only place they were legally allowed to bet.

Still, a spirit of egalitarianism persists at Poland's premier racecourse: whether it is handicappers or Group 1 horses, they all enter the 'Padok' serenaded by Copland's Fanfare For The Common Man.

Echoes of a glorious past remain visible at Sluzewiec (pronounced 'Schloot-zsa-viets', or something like that) in the shape of a couple of distinctive grandstands – both, to a greater or lesser degree, under renovation – and they are expecting a crowd approaching 10,000 on Arc Sunday for the historic Wielka Warszawska, the 'Great Warsaw Race', due to take place for the 103rd time about 20 minutes after they pass the post at Chantilly.