RIOT ON A RACECOURSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

RIOT ON A RACECOURSE.

WILD SCENES MARK MEETING AT

AUTEUIL.

•Scenes of wild confusion, caused by a stablemen's strike, marked the chief 'day's racing at the Auteuil racecourse, near Paris. A few minutes before the first race it , was seen that none of the horses had arrived, and the news spread that the stablemen had gone on strike and were stopping vans conveying the horses from Maisons Laffitte to Auteuil. The police thereupon sent a detachment of cavalry and municipal guards towards Pont de Besons to see that the horses were allowed to pass on their way. . At two p.m. a notice was posted up on the course that owing to a strike racing would only begin at 2.30, and later it was announced" that it would not start until three p.m. Two horses only appeared in the paddock, Sou-, pirant, trained by . Ruddock, who agreed to the strikers' terms; and Mr. Vanderbilt's Herkimer. The latter's horse was brought to Auteuil in a motor van, which had to make a long detour to avoid the strikers, i Extraordinary scenes were witnessed on the road. to the ciSurse, the horses being conveyed in their V{ins under a strong police escort, and beting subjected to a tusilade of stones from\sfcablemen hidden behind hedges Mr. Mband, director of the Protocol, who was < ii> the paddock, telephoned to President FaJlieres ' not to come to the races. Some mora horses having arrived, the numbers Tot the-fwsLiiice went up, while a further notice was issued" advising the public that the order of events would be changed. Later Soupirant was brought out to walk over the first on the card, the Prix .de la Source, but" the attitude of the crowd was so threatening that the horse was taken back to the paddock while a mob swarmed over the course asking for the return of its money. The Republican Guards, mounted and on foot, succeeded in clearing the course, and a detachment of firemen appeared on the scene. Their services were promptly requisitioned to extinguish a blazing hedge which had been set alight. , During the Military Steeplechase the swaying of the excited crowd caused a woman to fall over the rails on to the com so, where the whole field galloped over her. She sustained serious injuries, breaking a, collar bone and having her head cut abort.