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RUNNING OF FRANCES GREATEST RACE We had a Craganour incident in connection with the Grand Prix but happily the action of the Stewards who punished the offending jockey without disturbing the judges verdict wis morr satisfactory to the owner of the winner and to the general public than the precedent set by the English authorities at Epsom Stern on Bruleur rode a somewhat confident race knor ing that the horso had stamina and courage for the first half mile he brought up the rear but when the field emerging from behind the clump of trees on the far side began to make the ascent lie bad worked into fourth or fifth position He lay away from the rails and took the turn wide on the outside This meant travelling some lengths further but ho avoided any danger of being shut in as Eeoiien and one or two oilier horses were Coming into the straight lie chal ¬ lenged Opott and Pendragon who were leading and having got them beaten tile jockey for some reason or other crossed over the rails Ho cer ¬ tainly was not two lengths in front at the time timeAlthough Although he did not interfere with any other competitor he caused Bellhouse who had just obtained an opening for Ecouen to check his horse and the Stewards have put Stern on foot for a fortnight in consequence Ecoucn was cer ¬ tainly tin unlucky horse in the race and soine of his supporters are of an opinion that he would have won had he IKJCU able to obtain a clear course He was interferred with again and again and being on the rails lie was shut in all the way round Coming down the hill something bumped up against him knocking him out of his stride and he lost at least a length It was not until he obtained an opening on Pendragon and Pirplriol dropping back beaten that he was able to fully extend himself and It was at that moment Bruleur crossed over in front of him Nevertheless I think the best horse won and the Stewards were quite justified In not depriving M victoryIt de St Alary of the spoils of victory It was the jockey tjlono that was in fault and he has been punished I do Hot know If according to English racing law such a decision as tills could have been given on the occasion of the English Derby but I think it would have been generally approved Of course the suspension of Stern will seriously affect his employer M Edmond Blanc but in consideration of the fact that the jockey was not riding for his own stable in the Grand Prix the Stewards have given special permission for him to fulfil his engagement to ride M Blancs representative in the Prix dn President de la Hepublique at Maisons Lallitte It is only fair not to inilict hardship on an owner through the personal misconduct of a jockoy temporarily in the service of another owner 1 think there would have been a riot if Bruleiir had been disqualified I have never seen such a crowd at Longchamps and the receipts beat all previous records The money taken at the gates was G7000 and I am sure there must have been more than 100000 people on the pelouse The turnover at the Parimutuel was 850810 This is by no means a record but the big crowd is responsible for the diminution for thousands of people could not get near to the mutuel booths to invest their money There were over twenty additional ollices specially for wagering on the Grand Prix and the operations at these conducted by inexperienced clerks were often very slow At some of the pay boxes they had not finished settling on the Grand Prix until the last race was run This would have locked up the capital of small punters puntersIt It must always be remembered that the Pari mutuel figures are somewhat misleading a sum of over 830000 looks a lot but it represents Hie same money being used over and over again and every time it is used S per cent is deducted A man who has six bets of 100 francs each during tho day has contributed 48 francs to kitty The percentage on the Parimutuel on Sunday would have totalled up to over 03000 and of this amount 15000 would have been apportioned towards ex ¬ penses With such a sum at their disiwsal the Racecourse Society should have provided more offices and a much larger number of clerks clerksAlthough Although no English horses took part in the Grand Prix this year tlie race had an international char ¬ acter for of the twenty horses competing seven be ¬ longed to foreign owners Mr Herman B Duryea Mr August Belmont Mr Frank Jay Gould and Mr W K Vandcrbilt representing the United States of America and Senor Carlos Madariaga and Senor Martincx de Hoz running for Spain and the Argen ¬ tine There seemed to be thousands of Americans present and it is evident that the leading American sportsmen who have been driven from their own country by foolish legal restrictions arc obtaining a firm hold on the turf world In France It is not surprising therefore to learn that intelligent American statesmen who have visited France are desirous of seeing racing restored to its former po ¬ sition in New York Already harm has IHMMI done to tho horse breeding industries in the Unileil States and I am told1 that strenuous efforts are to be made to stop the slump there and to attract American breeders and race horse owners tiack to their native land English visitors were less numerous than usual although I came across many well known faces in the paddock paddockAs As a social spectacle the Grand Prix was in my opinion less brilliant than usual and the dis ¬ play of dresses by tho ladies did nut evoke the usual admiration High silk hats gave place among the men to straws and light felts The absence of Dagor Nimbus and Baldaquin in the field made the race look particularly open and racing experts generally agreed that the class of the competitors was poorer than usual Nevertheless we saw the fastest Grand Prix on rccxvd The fine weather and the hard ground contributed to this Bruleurs lime was 313 previous fast times being North casts in 1908314 Quo Vadis in 1903 315 anil As dA touts in 1911 310 During the last twenty years the times have been getting faster and faster In 1893 it took Ragotsky 3 minutes 38 seconds to cover the distance and Spearmints time in 1900 was 31SV Paris Letter to London Sporting Life
