"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.

Frogsracing hopped over to Ireland this week to visit Ballydoyle, hoping for something definitive on the plans of Europe’s top stable for the French Classics.

We left largely unenlightened. All roads from Tipperary lead to the Investec Derby – Aidan O’Brien said the race is “the ultimate” and all his talk centred on the favourite for Epsom, St Nicholas Abbey – so comprehensively defeated in the Newmarket Guineas by Mikel Delzangles’ Makfi.

(A French horsebox from Gouvieux stood in the Irish yard: we were assured Makfi was not on it).

O’Brien had 19 in the Poulains and 11 entered in the Pouliches on Sunday yet all of them 'escaped' at this week's first forfeit stage for the pair of Classics.

There is a more positive attitude to the Jockey Club – Jan Vermeer may be O’Brien’s hope there.

The son of Montjeu was winner of Saint-Cloud’s Criterium International last November following in the footsteps of Act One, Dalakhani and Bago, all heroes of this Group One in its short history.

But the Investec Derby will take precedence over all other Ballydoyle thinking.

O’Brien said his team were “crawling out of the jungle” – his phrase to dismiss the stable’s slow start to the season.

Epsom sponsors Investec’s symbol is the zebra. They are to be placed all over Epsom Downs. What next, wildebeeste in the Bois du Boulogne and cheetahs at Chantilly?

They will not be real zebras of course: not least the real zebra population will be glad of the fact – O’Brien is a wounded beast on the prowl.

Monday, May 3rd, 2010. We let the French snatch the Vermeille from Dar Re Mi and then we hand over the 1000 Guineas by demoting Jacqueline Quest in favour of Criquette Head’s Special Duty: what’s going on?

The day before the fillies’ Classic, which in all honesty went to the best filly in the race (as it was run – as two races, those drawn higher than six having no chance) we had all but donated our neighbours the 2000 Guineas.

If 26,000gns, the amount Makfi cost Mikel Delzangles as an unraced two-year-old at Newmarket In Training Sales last autumn, was a little more than the average takeaway, there hasn’t been a better bargain in recent thoroughbred history.

The word is that Delzangles was tipped the wink by a French stable lad at Marcus Tregoning’s yard that joint and knee problems wouldn’t be a permanent issue with the colt.

Employ that man: Makfi is “straightforward” to train according to Delzangles.

Mention of Dar Re Mi raises another issue.

French official word on her disqualification pointed out that betting across the Channel is different in that there is a Gallic prejudice against single bets in favour of combinations - meaning, Dar Re Mi did influence the Vermeille betting pots considerably by her interference of the fifth horse.

Yet here we have those same turfistes betting like Japanese (remember how they swallowed the market backing Deep Impact in Rail Link’s Arc) on a single horse, Makfi, who returned 12.80 (including stake) on the Tote as opposed to 33-1 with the bookmakers and an eye-watering 74-1 with Betfair.

Money from the PM bombarded the weak British 'Nanny goat' – hence the meagre dividend.

Special Duty gave half as attractive a dividend on the Tote as with the bookmakers – and on Betfair was odds against getting the race in the stewards’ room.

Before the reversed placings were announced Criquette Head thought that if the race had been run in France she would get it.

In fact at the Cartier awards last November I was fortunate enough to be drawn next to the most charming lady in racing, and she told me then she would get it!

Newmarket stewards thought so too, though they took a long time about daring to announce that Henry Cecil’s seventh fillies’ Guineas would have to wait.

Before the announcement Cecil said seven was his lucky number, that his filly had been drawn seven and had finished seventh on her last two outings – hence her starting price of 66-1.

The luck this weekend has had a distinct French flavour.

Sunday, April 25th 2010. Frank Sinatra’s brother could hardly sing a note; Mike Tyson’s sister couldn’t box at all; (oh alright and Michelangelo’s father couldn’t paint).

Not ‘facts’ but famous families rarely bear the weight of achievment in successive generations.

Martin Pipe won fifteen UK trainers’ championships more often than not saddling over 200 winners a season.

When his (more popular) son David took over four years ago there was much sympathy even apprehension for the boy's future.

We needn’t have worried. Pipe jnr landed his 100th winner on the last day of the British jumping season at Sandown on Saturday, courtesy of Mous Of Men and Ashkazar, signature French-breds – the kind of horse that made Pipe snr’s fortune (though some of them, Magnus most notoriously, cost him one).

Ashkazar (by Sadler’s Wells) finished fifth in Zambezi Sun’s Grand Prix de Paris three years ago for the Aga Khan.

Ashkazar has performed at a good level (without being high enough to provoke nosebleeds – either literal or metaphorical). Less may be have been expected of Mous of Men – he won on the flat at Le Mans for Guy Cherel but has had big absences since.

This Lord Of Men seven-year-old may be a late developer.

However it said something that the biggest cheer at Sandown (from where you can see the new Wembley stadium) came when it was heard Tottenham Hotspur had equalised against Manchester United.

Biggest cheers of the Punchestown week in Ireland came along with the Willie Mullins-trained victors Hurricane Fly and Quevega.

This pair were placed in Grivette’s Alain du Breil two years ago but when Quevega returned to the country of her birth for last year’s La Barka, she got a bloody nose (again not literally, she just wasn’t up to the job).

An AQPS daughter of Robin des Champs, Quevega is unlikely to be back in France.

Her objective is to take on another French champion domiciled in Britain, Big Buck's, for Cheltenham’s staying hurdle crown.