Jim French went to Saratoga, New York, for the Travers Stakes. Before he could race, he was impounded by the Saratoga County sheriff's office, and his entry was refused by the track's stewards. State steward Francis P. Dunne called it "...the most complex racing situation I've ever encountered." Jim French seemed to be owned by two people: Frank Caldwell and Etta Sarant. Caldwell proclaimed early in August 1971 that he had sold a 70% interest in the horse to Mrs. George Sarant, wife of a Long Island automobile dealer. Jim French ran in the name of Etta Sarant at Monmouth, where he finished ninth in the $100,000 Monmouth Invitational, but when the horse was shipped back to Saratoga it was revealed by New York racing officials that Mrs. Sarant did not have a New York owner's license. Campo said at the time that the Sarants, after only a few weeks of ownership, had let their 70% go to Fred R. Cole, a construction executive from Long Island. Cole wired the NYRA stewards on the eve of the Travers in an attempt to satisfy them of the legitimacy of his ownership of the horse and his eligibility to run Travers Stakes the next day. However, the appeal to the stewards was too late as entries for the Travers had closed the morning prior. When Caldwell took out a bank loan from the Citizens National Bank, he stated he was the sole owner. The bank advanced him $130,000. A director of the bank, Leslie Combs II, was also assured Jim French would stand at his Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, when his racing days were over. Citizens Bank during their course of investigation discovered that the horse's true owner was R. Robert LiButti (also known as Robert Presti). LiButti had been barred from racing in 1968.