Chantilly race not quite the same thing

Familiarity breeds content. Moving a race is like moving the dial on the radio, or wearing someone else's shoes. It works, the world doesn't come to an end, but it's easy to be uneasy about it. There's nothing wrong with a Chantilly Arc, except that, well, y'know, it's not quite right.

Perhaps it's me. That's been the answer on many, many occasions, after all. But there is definitely something that connects a particular race to a particular racecourse, especially when you've been watching them for as long as we have. There is a feel – sorry to be hippily wishy-washy about it – about this race or that which vanishes when it moves to a different venue, for whatever reason.

This is not designed to be some after-the-fact belabouring of the give-and-take between Newmarket and Ascot that saw several races change location and, inevitably, identity. The Champion Stakes is a different race now, the Royal Lodge, the Fillies' Mile too. Anything that is said to the contrary is to take us for fools. But those races have moved permanently, and we can and will slowly learn to accept the differences. One day, far beyond the horizon, it may feel as though the Champion Stakes has always been run at Ascot.