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"Tant pis" as Englishmen who pretend to know something about France are wont to say – especially about French racing.
Never did the phrase seem more appropriate than when Paris stewards threw out our darling Dar Re Mi from last year’s Vermeille. We might get a bit of our own back; Dar Re Mi’s half-brother Rewilding was transferred (to the incredulity of most racing people) from Andre Fabre to Godolphin’s new trainer in Newmarket.
Rewilding immediately dotted up at Goodwood and will be supplemented to the Investec Derby by the Sheikh for £75,000.
The stewards at Longchamp were at it again on Guineas' Sunday ejecting the Pouliches winner Liliside in favour of Special Duty – but they were doing no more than apeing Newmarket counterparts.
In the One Thousand Guineas at British HQ, Jacqueline Quest was Special Duty's victim.
Your correspondent helped create history when, thirty years ago, the Jockey Club overturned a local stewards’ disqualification for the first time.
To be honest it was a gimme – the only danger to Somersel having his Folkestone seller rightfully returned, was a flock of local seagulls.
The black and white replay reels suffered from that ‘spattered bird lime’ look of their time – but there was no disguising that Somersel had been hard done by.
That Portman Square ‘victory’ fired the starting gun for regular appeals and endless debate over objections.
Still, racing has never seen the like of two Classic turnovers – on behalf of the same filly, Special Duty.
The Longchamp crowd’s sympathy was all with Criquette Head’s filly – the opposite being the case at Newmarket where Henry Cecil’s Jacqueline Quest, owned by quadriplegic Noel Martin, was relegated.
At Longchamp Special Duty didn’t even suffer the delicate nudge she got from Jacqueline Quest at Newmarket.
Yet, to complain, as Brits did, about the length of time the Paris stewards took to throw Liliside off the Pouliches’ podium, shows ignorance of the different priorities of our neighbours.
Betting among the turfistes involves exotic combinations which feed the Pari-Mutuel and highlight our Tote as the sick betting man of Europe. Fifth can be as important as first - the rationale behind Dar Re Mi’s disqualification.
Liliside’s jockey J-B Eyquem, a mauler who would be at home in the boxing ring, gave enough of the Pouliches’ field 'black eyes' to anticipate his mount dropping right out of the places. He wasn’t wrong.
It must be said at the same time that Pasquier, asleep on Special Duty, rode a race that would have seen him in a tumbrel to the guillotine in another era. Criquette Head of course was the model of calm control, as she was at Newmarket.
Richard Hannon’s Dick Turpin went down to a Frenchman, Lope de Vega, for a second Guineas running in the Poulains.
Dick Turpin, runner-up to Mikel Delzangles’ Makfi at Newmarket, reproduced to the pound form with Lope de Vega from last year’s Prix Lagardere (for which the Fabre colt had started favourite) – except then they were behind Siyouni and Buzzword and this time ahead of them.
Hannon will be grateful that in the Irish Guineas all he will be up against is (at the time of writing) nine O’Brien’s - and no Frenchmen.
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Frogwatch, by Rolf Johnson 
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