A STRANGE RACE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3823, 19 October 1936, Page 7

A STRANGE RACE

STEWARDS IN A DILEMMA. I spoke to-day, on the telephone, to a friend at Deauville, writes the London “Diarist” of the “Evening Standard.” At Clairfontaine, on the outskirts of the town, yesterday he witnessed one of the most extraordinary races that has ever taken place on any racecourse. Seven runners went to the post, and the starter, an ex-champion French cyclist, had some trouble with the “gate” and had to start them with a flag. The mile and a half course is complicated, as there are several tracks. After it had gone about half a mile, the field suddenly split up. Two runners went on the outside course, four others took the inside course and the remaining runner elected to take on the steeplechase course. His horse jumped a fence and the jockey fell off. After the race there was a scene of wild pandemonium as no one appeared to know which jockeys had taken the correct course. The, only certainty was that the unfortunate man who had taken on the obstacles was wrong. After a quarter of an hour, while the crowd surged round the stewards* room, the stewards decided that the inside course was the correct one, and a horse who had finished third, having gone some 300 h yards farther than the others, was disqualified. One of the stewards, speaking on a loud speaker, informed the crowd that the jockeys who had taken the wrong course, had each been fined 500 francs.