Under a sizzling sun organdied mannequins in the pesage of Longchamp’s swank racetrack and Paris workmen in the field blinked the sweat out of their eyes for the start of the Prix de la Porte Maillot, day before the Grand-Prix last week. Most of them had bet on the U. S. favorite. Joseph E. Widener’s El-Kantara, French Jockey Semblat up. When the barrier went up to send the horses off clockwise around the track, El-Kantara twitched back to his counterclockwise U. S. training, whirled and started off in the opposite direction.
A French horse, Pepino, paying 9-to-1, managed to win the race before a workman threw the first chair over the rail. Then the hot, short-tempered crowd turned mob, rolled out of the stands into the track yelling against Jockey Semblat, the bookmakers, Pepino, the Government and Alexandre Stavisky. They set fire to half a dozen betting booths and piles of hay, tore down fences and Grand-Prix decorations. The horses lined up for the next race but when the crowd did not budge, it was the chargers of the decorative Republican Guards that came pounding down the stretch. It took two hours and 1,000 police reserves from Paris to clear the track.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- The New Face of Doctor Who
- Putin’s Enemies Are Struggling to Unite
- Women Say They Were Pressured Into Long-Term Birth Control
- Scientists Are Finding Out Just How Toxic Your Stuff Is
- Boredom Makes Us Human
- John Mulaney Has What Late Night Needs
- The 100 Most Influential People of 2024
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at letters@time.com