SOME FRENCH INNOVATIONS IN RACING.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 942, 26 March 1908, Page 5

SOME FRENCH INNOVATIONS IN RACING.

The racing authorities in France have made several new departures in the programme for the current season. In order to obviate the introduction of a riding-out rule, the prizes allocated to the second and third horses have been increased. The third horse will receive proportionately more than has been the custom up to the present. The entries and forfeits will be divided by three, and two-thirds will be reserved for the second, and the balance for the third. Engagements are made for the future in a manner which will, except for the classic and international events, enable an owner to calculate fully two days prior to the race the exact amount of money he will receive for the win and the place. The added money to be divided among winning owners at Paris and Chantilly is £116,430, while the subsidies granted to provincial gatherings, being devoted to the encouragement of racing up to £151,850, thus proving that the public from whom this money is derived has given ample patronage to racing. This year for the first time the added money offered for the Grand Prize of Paris, will, thanks to the totalisator, amount to £12,000. The second horse will be entitled to £l2OO, and the third to £6OO. It is now the most valuable turf prize in the world. As far as hurdle-racing and steeplechasing are concerned, £85,862 will be added money at Auteuil, and in addition £lOB6 as premiums for breeders. The conditions of the races contain certain modifications as to allowances made to jockeys not having won twenty races. They have certain events specially reserved for them. A 101 b allowance will be made for those coming within this category, and this allowance will be reduced by one-half for winners of ten races.