RIDING IN FRANCE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20022, 2 September 1930, Page 14

RIDING IN FRANCE.

INTERNATIONAL JEALOUSY, j To whatever else it may apply the ! Anglo-French "Entente Cordiale" does j not seem to extend to Australian jockeys j in the Ltnd of the fleur-de-lys. At least that is the conclusion to which one must come from the Sydney "Sun's" story of the treatment meted out to W. Scanlan, a Sydney rider retained by a' Belgian horse-owner who does a deal of racing in France. News has reached Sydney, says the "Sun," of a dramatic sequel to the recent incidents on French racecourses giving rise to the belief that other jockeys had organised a vendetta against Scanlan, the, well-known Australian jockey, whose importation into France to ride for M. Jaques Wittouck was resented. M. Wittouck, who is a gian, holding the world's record * for the number of,horses he has in training, has decided to give up racing in France after failing to induce the authorities to realise the seriousness of his . complaint. The 100 horses he had in training in France have been sold, and Frank Bullock, the famous Australian jockey, who was employed as private trainer by M. Wittouck, is moving to England, where the owner will race in future.

M. Wittouclc is also keeping on his stable in Belgium, where he has about 40 horses in training, and he expects to develop the small stable he has established in Acstralia on the advice of Frank Bullock. A number of horses unsold will be selected by Bullock for dispatch to join Lorraine, who has already arrived in Australia to carry M. Wittouck's. colours. W. Scanlan will transfer to England, where he will still be the stable- jockey. ? Talk of Sttfke. Immediately on Scanlan'B arrival in France some of the jockeys riding there protested against this importation as a reflection on the capacity of French-born riders. There was even talk of a strike of jockeys, but the owners stopped this by intimating that they would cancel the contract of any jockey joining in a demonstration against Scanlan and three other jockeys Imported at the same time. , Scanlan- roused the ire of his- critics still further by winning races on outsiders, and hostility came to a head when a number of rival jockeys . among themselves to see that Scanlan's winning career waa cut short by deliberate interference. The worst instance of the sort happened at St. Cloud, when Scanl&n was riding one of the best three-year-old fillies seen-out in France up to then. Just as he was reaching the winning post another horse swung right across his path, forcing rider and jockey over the rails, and it was by the merest fluke that horso and rider were not killed. Won and Lost. Scanlan, fortunately, was little the worse for his tumble, but the filly was so Upset that she has been no good on a racecourse since, despite the fact that on her previous form she would have been favourite for the French One Thousand Guineas and Oaks. The stewards refused to accept the explanation of the jockey responsible for the incident, and suspended him, but the general opinion was that the punishment was insufficient, and the fact that the offending jockey was attached to the powerful Kothschild stable was generally said to have saved him .from more severe treatment.