50 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



times called the French Two Thousand (first run in 1840) ; 

 the Poule des Produits (first run in 1841) at Paris 

 Spring Meeting, and sundry others. It would not be long 

 before they began to feel strong enough to ' have a 

 shy,' in sporting language, at perfidious Albion herself. 



In the meantime they had already enjoyed their 

 ' Derby scandal,' after our ' Punning Pein ' fashion, in 

 1840, thus preceding us by four years. This may be 

 taken to show either how nicely they were coming on 

 with their horse-racing or how naturally the iniquities 

 of horse-racing come to mankind, so much more 

 naturally and easily than any other part or cliai'acteristic 

 of that ' sport of kings.' The story is on this wise : — 



Whereas in 1840 the French Derby had been con- 

 sidered a ' moral ' (which means, in the language of the 

 Turf, a ' moral certainty ' and has nothing to do with 

 virtue) for Lord Henry Seymour's Jenny (by imported 

 Eoyal Oak and imported Kermesse), it was won by M. 

 Eugene Aumont with a filly described as Tontine (by 

 Tetotum and Odette), Jenny being second only. As in 

 the case of ' Punning Pein ' in England before the 

 Derby of 1844, so in the case of Tontine in France 

 before tlie French Derby of 1840, there had been 

 sinister rumours abroad concerning a meditated coup, 

 and as General Peel afterwards did in England so did 

 Lord Henry Seymour in France : he promptly objected 

 to Tontine, declaring that she was not bred in France 

 at all, but was (with a change of name only) an English 

 filly called Herodia (by Aaron and a Y. Election mare). 

 The case was investigated both by the French Jockey 

 Club and by the " tribunals,' and the result was a 

 curious paradox. The race ^ was not awarded to the 



' The charge, of course, being ' not proved ' to the satisfaction of the 

 French Jockey Club's stewards. 



