Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to balk, to hinder, to get in the way of, to ‘cut up’; thus Tod Sloaning n.

[1899		Daily Tel. 12 Aug. in Ware (1909) 226/2: When the rider of a mare named Nursemaid finished à la Sloan, the Devonshire labourer expressed his mingled surprise and admiration at the daring of the feat].
[1900		Sporting Times 21 Apr. 2/1: Sly Fox, Sloan up, an abso. Ain’t it the rogues’ course? Bertha].
1905		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Aug. 26/1: The average jockey has a contempt for ‘Tod Sloaning,’ more especially when a hurdle rider tries it. [...] ‘We’re in front by this time, and he’s Todding an’ Sloaning in the rear, an’ when he gets going again it’s a bit too late, and I gets home by ’arf-a-length. No; none of the Tod Sloaning if I’m about.’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 226/2: Sloan, To (Peoples’, 1899). Hamper, baulk, out. A word that lasted only as long as a summer’s leaves. From an American jockey (Archer), who, riding a French horse (Holocaust) in the Derby this year, attempted to slant him – across the course inside Tattenham corner and hamper the race. It was a fearless trick, invented by Archer at the risk of his life – one that Sloan imitated at the expense of his horse’s life.

2. (Aus.) a pun on sense 1, to cut up, as with a knife and fork.

1912

Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Nov. 16/2: The horse season is responsible for a lot in Australia. Was in a railway refreshment-room the other day, having a snack and watching a hungry man crouched over his plate – knife, fork, arms and legs moving in perfect unison. ‘Gorstruth,’ says my neighbor, ‘who’s the bloke Tod Sloaning his chop?’.