66 HORSE-EACING IN FRANCE 



would say — but at last they were beginning to feel their 

 feet and to see their way. By means of Nautilus and 

 other horses that had dared to compete with English 

 thoroughbreds at Goodwood now and then, and by 

 means of Beggarman and other English horses that had 

 been used for running as well as for stud purposes in 

 France (where, at Boulogne, La Cloture — by Mr. Wags 

 — ' bred in France,' had in 1850-51 actually beaten an 

 English horse of no account) the French had been able 

 to measure their improvement up to a certain point. 



Now in 1852 the indefatigable M. Alexandre Au- 

 mont (who founded the famous haras of Victot, near 

 Caen, in horse-loving Normandy, and who had taken 

 over the stables of his brother, M. Eugene Aumont, 

 when the latter fell under a cloud in consequence 

 of the ' Tontine scandal ') had a four-year-old filly, 

 Her vine by name, a daughter of Mr. Wags and the 

 celebrated Poetess (herself a winner of the French Derby 

 and the dam of the famous Monarque) ; and the said 

 Hervine was considered a perfect marvel of horseflesh. 

 There were few, just a few, two-year-old races in 

 France at this time, and perhaps the best two-year-old 

 performer of 1850 was First Born ; but in 1851, at three 

 years of age, Hervine had won the French Oaks, in 1852 

 she had won the Prix du Cadran, and when it was 

 determined to send her over to compete for the Good- 

 wood Cup in 1852 she was regarded by her compatriots 

 as ' the ever victorious filly,' having carried all before 

 her both in France and in Belgium. Moreover her 

 owner, M. Alexandre Aumont, was a sportsman Men 

 eveille — very wide awake indeed — and generally knew 

 what he was about. 



Why the French should nearly always have chosen 

 the Goodwood Cup for their first object of attack is 



