Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Saturday 30 June 1945, page 7


RACING IN FRANCE

Semblat Trains Derby Winner From Oor Sperial Representative LONDON, June 28.

Before the war the French jockey who gave the Australian riders, W. Scanlon, E. Sibbrett, and W. Johnstone some of their hardest

tussles, was Charles Semblat. who > was easily the best jockey in; France. I Semblat has retired from the. saddle and is training a string of '. over 40 horses for M. Marcel Boussac at Chantilly. Semblat is likely to be just as successful a. trainer as he was a jockey. He has already won important races, and now trains tbe winner of the French Derby, Coaraze. Semblat's stable is hardly conducted on the same neat lines as those of leading English trainers. Nevertheless, he bas a fine establishment, and the tracks at Chantuly are in fine order, although hard.Semblat Semblat believes in giving his horses a good deal of walking exercise, and at present does not appear to have any trouble with tbe labor market, as most of his horses appear to have one man attending! to each, which is not the case in j leading English stables. Semblat declares that he bad a hard time during the war, as the Germans were niggardly with grain for horses. He told the story of an order issued by toe French Jockey Club during the German occupation, making it imperative for clubs to notify the public which horses were fed on grain and those which went without. According to Semblat, one day at Longchamps there were eight runners in a race and seven were notified as having been fed. When tbe unfed runner won the public were to say the least, rather annoyed, and the practice was stopped. Semblat is anxious to send some of his horses to Britain to race soon, so that comparisons may be made between the best French and English performers, but he realises that it will be probably another year or even longer before travel for horses will be possible. Transport Difficult Transport in France Is one of the country's overriding problems. Paris trainers cannot send horses to Lyons or Marseilles to race, and it is with the greatest difficulty that yearlings can be shipped from the studs in Calvados to Paris, roughly 170 miles distant. The English Jockey Club announced this week that the embargo on horses from other countries racing in England, enacted in 1941, had been rescinded. This clears the way for Frenchmen when transport is available, but probably the first visitors to Britain will be from Eire, which has been racing during the war and where the standard is said to be fairly high. Reverting to French racing, some patrons of the sport do not take kindly to the success of extreme outsiders and the complete failure of the favorite. An outsider recently won the last race at Longchamps, paying over 33 to 1 on the part mutuel. and half an hour later two barrier posts and the installalations of one of the starts on the infield were burning merrily, and nobody seemed unduly concerned. Fortunately the stands are concrete. Johnstone To Train The Australian jockey W. Johnstone plans to train horses when the war clouds have rolled away in Europe. "I will ride for a few more seasons and then go to Australia to select three lightweight apprentices to ride for my stable in Paris," he said today. Johnstone considers that he will have no trouble in obtaining a number of horses to train. In fact, owners for whom he rides have already promised him support in that respect. Johnstone's idea in selecting young Australian riders is that apprentices are more payable to trainers than if they won the Grand Prix and the Derby in the same year. In France half the earnings of apprentices go to the trainers. Jockeys receive 450 francs for a losing ride and 7* p.c. of the winning prize. It is little enough now, with the franc at 200 to the £1. Paris prices are fantastic, according to our standards. The moderate class horses racing this week at Longchamps is due entirely to the hard ground, as owners and trainers do not care to risk breakdowns.