Deauville-La Touques Racecourse

1862 – Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, Duc de Morny, the half-brother of Napoleon III, constructed the racetrack. The racecourse is located on 70 hectares of dried-up marshes. One part has been sown with grass, and two tracks have been carved.

1864 – The first two race meetings took place on the banks of the river Touques with six races, specifically on Sunday and Monday of August (14 and 15) 1864.

1865 – Duke of Morny died on March 8, 1865, five months before the second meeting on August 6 and 7. The Deauville Racing Society and the Prix Morny were established in the same year. Equine diversification continued around the racecourse.

1866 – The Deauville Cup was created and hence expanded the meeting.

1871 – Deauville Grand Prix was founded.

1880 – The pavilion of scales (weighing room) was built, inspired by the 18th-century vernacular structures of the Auge region, built by Delarue, an architect from Trouville.

1887 – First Thoroughbred sale at Deauville.

1890 – A neo-Norman-style swing pavilion was built.

1913 – The racetrack was equipped with a straight-line track on which the best windfall tests run and brick stands. On August 6, 1913, the fiftieth anniversary of the racetrack was celebrated. It was extended to the south by a building body of the same style. The layout of the scales and paddock is the work of landscape architect Eugène Thouret.

1919 – The stands of the Second Empire were rebuilt on the initiative of Count Jacques Le Marois, president of the Society of Encouragement. Protected by a large canopy, architects Louis Lefranc and Alfred Pigny added a monumental concrete construction, partially embellished with brick cladding, that can accommodate 2,000 spectators. Its solid appearance is diminished by abundant protruding elements (bow windows, arcades, porches).

1921 – The Société des courses de Deauville merged with the Société d’Encouragement. The Société d’Encouragement acquires the land south of the racecourse to build stables. They were designed by Charles Adda, who also added four villas. Two of them, the Le Thym and Bottom-of-the-Hill were four stories high. The other two, Les Polos and Punta-Gorda, with boxes on the ground floor and rooms on the first, were built to house horses and their owners on race days.

1982 – A permanent training center was built at Deauville, where horses were trained all year round.

1991 – Additional races were created in October.

1995 – The racecourse reopened with a new track on July 30, 1995, built by borrowing the outer part of the large turf training area inside the main track. The stands and the parade ring have new layouts.

2003 – The all-weather track was installed on July 6, 2003. It has a 2,000m circumference, installed inside the lawn. Hence, during the winter of 2003-2004, the first winter meeting was also inaugurated.

2007 – The first races in the late morning were organized in January 2007.  Touques then became the French racetrack hosting most flat gallop races in France.

2013 – A plaque was unveiled honoring the mare Goldikova, the winner of 17 races.

2014 – The fibresand track was renovated.

2016 – The racetrack hosted several tests of the Longchamp racetrack in May 2016, closed for work. Tests like the prestigious Chicken Test Hens, Chicken Test Hens, and the Saint-Alary Prize are all group 1 races. In June and July 2016, it also hosted several race meetings of the Maisons-Laffitte racetrack, as a large flood of the Seine flooded it.

2018 – France Galop transferred the Jean Prat Prize in July 2018 to the racetrack, which usually runs in Chantilly. Hence, it became the 6th group 1 of Deauville.

2020 –  The racetrack welcomed the Chicken test hens and the Chicken test hens in June 2020 because the ParisLongchamp racetrack remained closed due to health restrictions of COVID-19 in Ile-de-France.

2021 – Lighting in LED of the fiber sand track and the presentation round was set up in November 2021 to organize evening races. The buildings were also highlighted.