Prix du Gros Chêne Prix du Gros Chêne The Prix du Gros Chêne is a Group 2 flat horse race in France open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Chantilly over a distance of 1,000 metres (about 5 furlongs), and it is scheduled to take place each year in late May or early June. The event was established in 1857, and it was originally contested over 800 metres. Its title refers to a large oak tree which stood in the grounds of the racecourse – the English translation of "Gros Chêne" is "Great Oak". The race was abandoned because
Jockey-Club de Paris in rue Scribe, which ends at the façade of the Opéra Garnier. On the wall is a memorial plaque on the Hotel Scribe, at number 1, which records the former premises of the Jockey Club, which occupied luxurious quarters on the first floor from 1863 to 1913. During the Second Empire and the Third Republic, the gentlemen of the Jockey Club held numerous boxes at the Opera ("many little suspended salons" in Marcel Proust's phrase), where the required ballet expected in every opera was never in the first act, when the Jockey Club would habitually still be at dinner. One