BIG AUTUMN DOUBLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 128, 26 November 1938, Page 22

BIG AUTUMN DOUBLE

FRENCH SUCCESSES

QUESTION OF HANDICAPPING

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, October 27. The great autumn double of the English Turf has been won by French horses. Contrevent, owned by PrinIcesse de Faucigny-Lucinge and bought originally for £100, won the Cesarewitch, 2£ miles, following the success of Helleniqua in the Cambridgeshire a fortnight before. • There were long odds againsi, tlr- bracket, and only two oeople. coupled them in the Racecourse I Betting Control Board's double. The two 10s tickets were worth £6208 10s each. It' was a great day for French horses, for Dubonnet came in second. Fet, now a seven-year-old, finished third. Last year he was second, and in 1936 he won the race. No horse has ever won the Cesarewitch twice, so that the odds were against his gallant effort. JOINT FAVOURITES. Black Speck and Solonaise were joint favourites. Black Speck did not gel away too well and then lost several lengths by jumping a road; and Solonaise whipped round as the gate went up, and, although she closed up the gap after three furlongs, she finished eighth. About six furlongs from the post the field was well buached, and a regular dog fight of a finish between a dozen i horses seemed likely. But the prospect suddenly vanished, and from a large number' with chances all dropped out except three, and one of them soon was left behind by the other two. The three were-1 Contrevent, Dubonnet, and Fet. Half-way down the hill into the Dip this change occurred, and before the Dip was reached Fet was beaten. He had run gallantly, but old age told. He had done all that he could and once again had run a great race in this most ■ severe of all tests. I Coming down into the Dip Contrevent was just in front of Dubonnet. Richards and Dubonnet did all they could, but Contrevent had the race won and went past the post a length and a half in front. Arthur Tucker, rider of Contrevent, a little man aged 22, said that the race was run exactly to suit the horse. "They went fast enough for me, but not too fast," he said, "and Contrevent, who is a cold horse, had got warmed up just by the time I asked him to go out to win. ■ I had to ride him all the way," he added; "and even going up to the Bushes there were probably a dozen horses in front of me. But he ran on very gamely." Contrevent is a short-legged, compact, cobby sort, who claims Aetneistan's son Deiri as his sire and comes fi'jm Persian Princess, an Englishfoaled daughter of McKinley. Bred by Mr. Macomber, Persian Princess was out of Sisaga, by Sunflower II (Sundridge) from Fair Lassie, a daughter of Orme out of the One Thousand Guineas and Oaks winner Our Lassie, a halfbister to the St. Leger winner Your Majesty. This is a British pedigree, and Sisaga was bred by Mr. J. B. Joel and exported to America as a yearling, going from there to France in 1919. SOME HEART-BURNING. There was a little heart-burning in some quarters over the result of the big double. Contrevent was given less weight to carry than any other actual runner. The bottom weight in both races was 6st 71b. The handicapper assessed the merit of Contrevent at 6st 81b, though the colt had won a race of 2£ miles in France. In the Cambridge, shire Helleniqua had 6st 91b. Helleniqua carried 31b more and Contrevent 21b more than the handicapper gave them, which, of course, adds to the extent their merit was under-estimated. "Hotspur," in the "Daily Telegraph." "It seems high time that these French horses were made to carry top weight until they had run three times in this country, whatever races they take part I in, and I know that the large majority of owners and trainers over here agree with me. After all, if French horses do not do so what chance have our handicappers of assessing them at their proper value? The answer, apparently, is none. lam not blaming the handicapper to the Jockey Club, but the rule as it stands at present. Obviously something must be done about it before next season."

The winning owner, Princesse de Faucigny-Lucinge, was not present to see the success of her son of Deiri, because she does not like the journey across the Channel. It upsets, her. She won the 2000 Guineas five years ago with Rodosto, and her horse, Nightcap 111, was narrowly beaten in the Cesarewitch in 1935.