Racecourse Wrecked

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 893, 10 February 1930, Page 9

Racecourse Wrecked

IRATE BACKERS TAKE CHARGE

Trouble Over False Start

TOTALISATOR BURNED DOWN

IRATE backers on a French, racecourse, ivho were dis- * appointed by a false start in a trotting event, rioted and wrecked the course appointments and burned the totalisator. Police were overwhelmed and the programme was ultimately abandoned.

United P.A.—By Reed. 10.15 a.m. PARIS, Sunday. A false start in the Vincennes trotting races led to the worst racecourse riot in France for a quarter of a century. Ten horses in the first race dashed off and completed the course, but were ordered to rejoin the remaining five and rerun the race. The irate backers on the parimutuel, or totalisator, thereupon rioted, shouting: “We want our money back." They surged round the offices, brushed away the police, overturned and scattered the mounted police and wrecked everything in their path. They invaded the weighing room and the Press stand and flung chairs and

tables on title course. They then demolished the huts and pulled up the stakes marking the course, and flung down the paddock railings. They set fire to the pari-mutuel, which was burned down. Fires were started in the other buildings, which narrowly escaped the same fate. The stewards attempted to start the second race, but the rioters dug holes in the course. Police reinforcements quelled the disorder, but the programme was abandoned. M. Chiappe, the Parisian Prefect of Police, commanded reinforcements in dispersing the mob. who greatly hampered the firemen by cutting the hosepipes. Numerous arrests were made.