R AC IXC Foreign to Fkexcii Tastes. 



97 



minutely describes some hundred stallions, mares, three-ycar-olds, and two-year-olds, in training 

 in 1873. 



The French Government under the Empire, when racing became a fashion, if not a passion, 

 amongst the wealthy and noble, gave up breeding thoroughbred horses in the State studs, with the 

 view of encouraging private enterprise. 



At the present moment, says the Baron, " le cheval de pur sang (the thoroughbred) is 

 more than ever ostracised, neglected by the official breeding establishments, obliged to be disguised 

 by cutting its tail to be admitted into the ranks of the cavalry, or to get mixed up with the 

 ordinary trade in riding-horses ; only the two extremes of the clicvaliiie hierarchy are open to 

 it, the racecourse and the hackney-cab. The subventions to the turf have been diminished, prizes 

 are no longer given for steeplechases, or premiums for thoroughbred brood-mares, and very 

 little pecuniary encouragement is afforded to thoroughbred stallions." But it seems as if the 

 same transformation of tastes to which we have already alluded, as having in England sent 

 gamblers from the green cloth to the turf, had taken place in France. The wealthy and titled, 

 not caring for politics, and following the fashion of the country with which they are on the 

 best terms, are taking to field sports instead of the amusements of cities. We find an example 

 of this while turning over the pages of " Le Pjir Sang" in a name which was that of one of 

 the splendid runners at Newmarket in October, 1873, when, M. Le Comte de Juigne's Montargis, 

 a rank outsider, ridden by a French jockey, Carratt, the Fordham of France, won the Cambridge- 

 shire, beating the two favourites, King Lud and Walnut. 



" Le Comte de Juigne began with a passion for driving. For several years he had a 

 reputation for carriages and horses of the finest class for quality and action. Tired at last of 

 the mill-horse round of steppers and four-in-hands, he sold everything oft", bought a few good 

 mares, and began to breed." As a matter of course (in France), he commenced by trying to 

 produce that eternal half-bred trooper without a thoroughbred sire, although they are as closely 

 allied as cause and effect. 



"After a time, associated with Prince Aremberg, he commenced on the turf." \\\ 1872 

 his stud consisted of nine two and three-year-olds. 



That racing is quite foreign to the tastes of the French nation is shown in the following 

 of several passages to the same effect : — " We cannot count on public opinion for encourage- 

 ment in anything affecting horse-breeding in France as they can in England, where such 

 questions are considered to be of national interest. Our political and social organisations 

 render such a state of feeling impossible ; such subjects will always remain the speciality of a 

 class. As an example, when the question of horse supply was recently discussed in the 

 British Parliament, the debate was adjourned because several members competent to speak 

 on it were absent fo.x -hunting. Had such a delay been proposed in France, it would have 

 been howled down. Yet the statesmen in England are not inferior to ours in questions of 

 general interest, but the taste for sport is innate in the Englishman, and only exceptionally 

 found in the Frenchman. For this reason, State aid is essential to support horse-breeding 

 on sound principles in France." 



Facts prove that there must be something extremely favourable to the production of the 

 thoroughbred horses, either in the climate of France, or the selection of stock by French 

 breeders ; for the proportion of victories obtained by French-bred horses on the English turf, 

 looking at the comparative number bred in each country, is very large. 



In November, 1873, Mr. Digby Collins showed that the Earl of Stradbroke was wrong 

 when he told the Lords Committee on Horse Supply that there were not three horses in 

 N 



