GLADIATEUR TO PERSIMMON 



GLADIATEUR 



In an attempt to give interesting sketches of the 

 great horses that I have seen during a thirty-five 

 years' experience of the Turf, I am fortunate to be 

 able to get a good start with such a " smasher " as 

 Gladiateur, a colt whose career was watched with 

 the keenest interest by many thousands of people 

 who had never previously concerned themselves in 

 the smallest degree with racing matters. In those 

 days the belief in British supremacy in all sports 

 and pastimes was simply unlimited. We had not 

 sustained any of the severe reverses we have since 

 experienced — notably from our American and 

 Australian cousins — in cricket, rowing, boxing, etc., 

 and we took a great deal of convincing that there 

 was any danger of the Derby falling to a foreigner, 

 formidable opponent as Count Lagrange was ac- 

 knowledged to be after the Oaks victory of Fille 

 de I'Air in the preceding year. The great horse 

 of France, the " Avenger of Waterloo," as he was 

 grandiloquently termed in some of the French 

 newspapers, did not begin his marvellous career in 

 very promising fashion, as he was trodden upon in 



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