If the impossibility of rule harmonisation regarding protests, brought up in this space last week, was not enough to show that thinking in France is left field then the president of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) has gone out of his way to settle any argument.
Of course, whip rules have been a hot potato in Australian racing during the past seven months since they were introduced for the first time to appease a noisy minority of wowsers wowserising about 50kg jockeys using whips on 500kg animals.
During the Asian Racing Federation conference last week in Sydney, IFHA president Louis Romanet suggested the world should take its cue regarding whip rules for jockeys from ... you know, there should be a write in, phone in or email competition attached to this, with a super prize for anyone who guesses which racing jurisdiction he named. The prize will be safe.
So Romanet's comment led us to investigate the quiet behemoth of racing in, yes, Norway, where there is one gallop track operating once a week in Oslo, apparently one horse stud and the jockey club seems to be run out of a post office box.
A country of 4.8 million, who bet around HK$5.2 billion on 4,932 races in 2008 - the most recent figures we could find - is all sound enough until the details reveal that only 280 of those races were gallops.
Our schoolboy Norwegian was a bit rusty and navigation around the official site somewhat awkward, though there seems to be a chip on the shoulder of Norwegian racing, vis a vis big brother trotting, as we encountered this under advice to new punters: 'Playing on the gallop may seem more fair than the trot, the horses are not disqualified for galloping and it is rare that a horse is locked in by competitors.'
In 2009, Wido Neuroth was the champion trainer in a canter, while champion jockey for the fourth time was Espen Ski, who now sits equal second behind Ole Svartshoel as the active Norwegian with the most titles, though behind Janos Tandari's eight-win all-time record. Stop me if you already know all this.