TURF SCANDAL

Hokitika Guardian, 13 May 1933, Page 6

TURF SCANDAL

RACEHORSE DOPED IN FRANCE

SENSATIONAL DISCLOSURES

LONDON, March 15

A sensational scandal of the French Turf —a new method of doping race-

horses, so cleverly done that not the slightest trace of the injection can be proved—is occupying the attention of the Surete'Generate, the French Scotland Yard,

The principal ingredient of the new drug, jt is learned, ic r/ocaine. Its effect is'so potent that only a minute quantity is necessary to produce a tremendous stimulus, enabling a secondrate horse to win' (writes the Paris correspondent of the “Daily Ex-

press.”) So small is the dose of dope used that no after-effects are left, and the size of the injection needle is so tiny that the puncture of the horse’s skin is invisible after the administration of the drug. Two famous French turf organisations —La Societe des Steeplechases and La Socjete pour Amelioration des

Races de Chevaux —have for some time expressed concern at the ease with which comparative outsiders have reneatedlv won races in France.

Stewards conducted a research of their own, but could find no definite proof of doping, so they put the matter jn the hands of the French police. The first clue came by chance. A Paris detective, sent to Marseilles to search incoming ships for dope, saw a man talking to another man the detective knew to be one of tlici dope merchants of Marseilles. He shadowed the two men to a dockside cafe, and was able to confirm the fact that a large quantity of cocaine was purchased on behalf of a racing .establishment and taken to the ■s tables.

Other detectives kept watch on the stables, but they were unable to establish sufficient evidence to warrant

'ah .arrest

The police-are sure that the new method, of doping is practised in various -rising. establishments.