Reiff and Henry, Daily Racing Form, 1902-12-12

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RE 1 JUT AND HENlir. It is passing strange that "Johnny" Reiff, with a a record of 116 winning mounts in France in the season just closed, and Henry, with a record of ninety-Beven wins, should have boon guilty of all the heinous offenses alleged against them by the French turf authorities, and for which they have suffered the extreme penalty ruling off. In the absence of evidence of any kind, turfmen are bound to accept the ruling of the French Jockey Club; but while doing so many of them probably will be moved to wonder how these boys could have achieved such a large measure of success and still have boon guilty of the wholesale pulling alleged. It is a trifle queer, to say the least, that our most skillful jockeys are the jockejs that are most depraved that is, of our jockeys riding in foreign lands and that of all of them who have gone abroad Maher alone has escaped the blight of official displeasure. Moreover, until now the most conspicuous victims have not been openly charged with wrongdoing. It is well understood that no suspicion of fraud attached to the riding of Sloan. The summary ending of his career was the price he paid for a personality which made him well nigh intolerable, but which in this country was overlooked or treated with the contempt which it merited, and which was about as severe a penalty .as it called for. Then in the case of Lester Reiff, also a victim of the English stewards, there was the etory of his sharp answer to an owner of influence who did not like a ride Reiff put up on one of his horses. "If my riding does not suit you get somebody else to ride your horses," Reiff is alleged to have replied, and it is also alleged that the owner then and there threatened to square the account with him. Whether the story be true or not, the fact remains that the account was squared, and squarod with a vengeance. Singular also is it that our returning jockeys, filled with good words of their treatment on the turf of Russia, Austria, Germany and Hungary, have nothing but complaint to make of their treatment in England and France. We do not hear all the ill words said of tho turf of the two latter countries by returning American jockeys, for the reason that not all of them will talk for publication. And always, whether in England or in France, where the Englishman ruled until the advent of the American jockey, they attribute their troubles to the jealousy of the Engish trainers and jockeys. Can it bo that the atmosphere of Russia, Austria, Germany and Hungary is more conducive to honesty to the American jockey than is the atmosphere of England and France? The record supplies an answer in the affirmative, but whether the record contains the whole truth is a question which may not be an swered here. We only know that Maher looked on in England as more Irish than Yankee is the only succassful American boy in England or France who thus far has escaped the displeasure of the turf authorities of those countries. Evening Sun.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1902121201/drf1902121201_3_4
Local Identifier: drf1902121201_3_4
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800