Above: Photo taken on February 21, 1928, two days before the start of the Paris-Cannes race. Left to right: Jane Cody on Love; Martha Gaiatry on Colibri; Marie Féraud on Stuart; Rachel Grossi on Yarmont; and Eddy Wedd on Love VII. Another shot taken at the same time was published in Le Petit Journal, February 21, 1928, p. 1 (Bibliothèque national de France via Gallica.
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Above: Same photo (detail): Jane Cody and Martha Gaiatry (holding a small dog).
Above: Jane Cody on her mare Love (detail). (Bibliothèque national de France via Gallica. Photo credit: Agence Roi press photo.
7. Paris-Cannes, 1928 (continued)
A second contestant who was newsworthy apart her horse riding skills was Jane Cody, who claimed to be a descendent of Buffalo Bill Cody and dressed in cowboy garb (although the picture at left shows she wore more conventional attire for the race to Cannes).
Jane's husband, who followed her to Cannes on a bicycle, told a reporter that in 1927 she rode 1,000 kilometers in ten months in 50 kilometer stages while doing two performances every night in the "Buffalo Bill circus." A thousand kilometers in ten months (or 100 kilometers a month) does not seem all that impressive, even if combined with two circus performances a night, unless Jane's husband or the reporter got their numbers wrong. Unfortunately for Jane's circus claim Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show ceased operations twelve years earlier, in 1916.
Buffalo Bill's only granddaughter was indeed named Jane (Jane Cody Garlow). She was 17 years old in February, 1928 but did not then have a husband (she married for the first time in 1933). On July 4, 1924, aged 14, she unveiled a statue to her grandfather in Cody, Wyoming, and in 1927 she greeted President Calvin Coolidge at the door of Cody's Buffalo Bill museum, but there is no record in newspapers or obituaries of equestrian exploits or any time spent in France.
The other three contestants were Mary Féraud and two professional equestriennes, an Irish woman named Neddy Wedd and a French woman named Rachel Grossi. The five women set out from Paris on the morning of February 23.
Ms Wedd was suffering from the flu when the race began and had to drop out early (she was replaced after some delay by a friend named Madame Lenoir). Marie Féraud had to withdraw on March 2 after a careless blacksmith drove a nail into her horse Stuart's foot while reshoeing him. But both Stuart and Marie finished the race, Marie walking and later riding a bicycle alongside him the rest of the way to Cannes.
None of this mattered much because after day one the race was all about Martha Gaiatry. To the delight of the press corps Martha was in the lead at the end of the second day and she increased her lead every day thereafter. Martha's strategy was to get on the road at dawn or earlier while the other competitors were still in bed. The race was half over before the others reacted to Martha's lead and started pushing their horses (and themselves) to catch up.
Martha gave a theatrical performance at every stopover:
"At each checkpoint, she first glares fiercely at the people approaching her. She scribbles hieroglyphics representing her signature in the register. Then she smiles and kisses her colorful turtle. When she has finished resting on her stomach, the time imposed by her devoted and aristocratic benevolent managers [the Viscount and Viscountess], she thinks only of sketching dance steps, expressing her joy at having been able to remove her fawn-colored boots, modern instruments of torture."
The hieroglyphics with which Martha signed her name to the checkpoint registers were said to be Sanskrit. The turtle was a small green toy reportedly named "Laschme" to which, along with early rising, Martha attributed her success in the race. The turtle may have been intended to support Martha's claim to a Hindu heritage. The Hindu goddess Lakshmi is often depicted with a turtle that symbolizes wealth, longevity, stability, and good fortune.
When Martha reached Frejus, about 40 kilometers from Cannes, she was still nine hours ahead of her nearest competitor, Rachel Grossi. She waited in Frejus until Rachel caught up with her and they rode into Cannes together on March 8, 1928.