DOPED RACEHORSES

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18067, 19 April 1933, Page 3

DOPED RACEHORSES

DRUG INJECTIONS POLICE WATCH ON STABLES PARIS, Feb. 26. A sensational scandal of the French turf—a now method of doping racehorses, so cleverly done that not the slightest trace of the injection can be proved—is occupying the attention oi the fiurete Generate, the French Scotland Yard. 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 Societo des Steeplechases ’ and “La Societo pour l’Amelioration des Races de Chevaux” —have for some time expressed concern at the ease with which comparative outsiders have repeatedly won races in France. Stewards conducted a research of their own, but could find no definite proof ot doping, so they put the matter in the hands of the French police. 'The first duo 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 the dopo merchants of Marseilles. He shadowed the two men to a dockside cafe, and was able to confirm the fact that a large quantity of the drug was purchased on behalf of a racing establishment and taben tij the stables, establishment and taken to the stables.