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The coastal road, barely wide enough for two-way traffic, wound behind the parish church and between fence posts and seagrass. My car shuddered along through a persistent, misty rain until the road ended abruptly, swallowed by an expansive stretch of beach.

I steered off onto a gravel lot, but the tractor-trailer behind me plodded ahead, jostling as it bumped from the road onto the sand. It was followed by horse trailers, trucks, tractors and, soon, hundreds of cars that parked in neat lines on the strand.

Beyond us, the ghostly outline of a racecourse stood out against the gray.