CHAPTER VII. 



SOME FOREIGN JOCKEYS. 



HORSE-RACING is now so well established in France 

 that it is difficult to imagine that at the beginning 

 of the present century it was almost unknown among 

 our lively neighbours. Now the best English jockeys 

 ride in the principal French races, and English 

 horses run on French turf. French horses come 

 over to England, and beat English ones, too; so 

 that French turf matters have improved since the 

 New Sporting Magazine gave the following description 

 of two French jocks who rode in the Paris races, 

 1832: 



' Rene, the jockey on Conradin, and Baptiste, the 

 rider of Cederic, ought to be immortalised in the 

 annals of horsemanship, for sure such a pair were 

 never seen on any course before. The former was 

 a long, lean, half-starved looking Frenchman, with 

 sharp knees, who sat astride his horse like a pair of 

 tongs; while the other a, great lusty hulk of a 

 Norman, in a pair of mahogany-topped boots, great 

 white cord breeches, lashed twice round his waist 



