THE FIRST STRUGGLES 65 



mean reputation ; to wit, Pierre Chabrol, Cornelier, 

 Antoine, Z. Caillotin (he who rode Honesty, winner of 

 the French Oaks in 1854), Pierre Prunet, Joseph, and 

 more to the back of them. And it is a httle remark- 

 able that French jockeys should apparently have been 

 in greater esteem then than they are now, though races 

 have been instituted in France to be ridden by jockeys 

 of French parentage only, both by father and mother, 

 for the express purpose of encouraging a breed of 

 indigenous jockeys. The attempt has not been so 

 successful as it might have been ; and the secret of the 

 comparative failure is stated by a ' compatriot ' to be 

 that the French nature abhors an abdominal vacuum, 

 the French jockeys 'trouvant trop rude I'obligation de 

 se faire maigrir.' 



Meanwhile the French Jockey Club had been 

 making way surely, if slowly. Under the auspices of 

 that body a few really notable races had been esta- 

 blished and regularly run, with a few breaks from 

 various causes. The Grand Prix at Paris (not, of course, 

 the Grand Prix de Paris), which seems to have been an 

 institution of the Administration des Haras (by whom or 

 by which the race was won with Corysandre in 1838, 

 and m 1839 with Eylau, both bred at the Administra- 

 tion's own ' haras ' at Le Pin), was patronised by the 

 members of the French Jockey Club, and lasted from 

 1834 to 1860 (both years included), and much the same 

 remark apphes to the Prix de la Ville de Paris, which 

 dates from 1844 but was turned into a handicap in 

 1864 : but the French Jockey Club had established on 

 their own account the Prix du Jockey Club, or French 

 Derby (first run in 1836), and the Prix de Diane, or 

 French Oaks (first run in 1843), at Chantilly ; the Prix 

 du Cadran (first run in 1838) ; the Poule d'Essai, some- 



