Animals: Racing Roaches

French sportsmen are pleased and exhilarated over a new sport at the Riviera’s foremost summer resort, swank Juan-les-Pins—races of thoroughbred cockroaches. Bookmakers cover bets of thousands of francs on each roach race. Racing roaches run in narrow tracks covered with glass. Each roach is numbered with white ink. At the starting line they are restrained by transparent covers. At the finish line is a large black box, invitingly open. At the starting signal a strong light is switched on behind the roaches, their covers removed. Mortally hating bright lights, the roaches run for the darkness of the boxes at the other end of the tracks. Last week’s bitterest rival cockroaches were Mick the Miller, named for a famed British racing greyhound, and Man o’War, whose namesake was one of the greatest of U. S. racehorses.