CHAPTER III 

 THE REVERSE AT LONGCHAMP 



ON Saturday, October 8th, D. Maher rode the 

 winner of the Duke of York Stakes at 

 Kempton Park, and left by the night boat 

 for Paris to fulfil his retainer for Pretty Polly in the 

 Prix du Conseil Municipal, which is perhaps better 

 known to Parisians as the Grand Prix d'Automne. 



A change of jockeys was inevitable, owing to the fact 

 that W. Lane, who had ridden the filly in several of 

 her earlier races, and all her three-year-old victories up 

 to date, had sustained a terrible accident by the falling 

 of Belosselsky at Lingfield, in September, and was 

 then, and for long after, hovering between life and 

 death, being unconscious for weeks, and only eventually 

 recovering after months of convalescence. 



Maher had never previously ridden Pretty Polly in 

 any of her races, but he was well conversant with the 

 Paris course, and had ridden winners there in his 

 earlier days before he settled in England, and had the 

 previous year been up on the second to La Camargo, 

 Wavelet's Pride. 



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