72 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



stated by tlie authority (with his pocket-handkerchief 

 to his compatriotic eyes), for the Grand Criteriuoi for 

 two-year-olds, in 1854, by AUez-y-gaiment (another 

 son of The Emperor, by the way), belonging to M. H. 

 Mosselman ; and that was the only occasion, it is said, 

 on whicli Monarque was ever beaten in France by a 

 Frencli horse at even weights or at weight for age. So 

 too the great West Australian was beaten once at two 

 years of age by his natural and feudal inferior Speed- 

 the-Plough. At three years of age, however, Monarque 

 took ample revenge on Allez-y-gaiment, in 1855, in 

 which year the ' monarch of all he surveyed ' won the 

 Poule d'Essai of 6,000 francs, or 240/., the Poule des 

 Produits of 8,500 francs, or 140/., the French Derby of 

 52,000 francs, or 2,080/., the Grand Saint Leger at 

 Moulins of 9,900 francs, or 396/., and other events, 

 including the Continental Derby at Ghent. 



In England, however, in 1855 Monarque, having 

 been sent to give his perfidious neighbours a taste of 

 his quality, was a dead failure. His reputation had 

 o-one before him, but his works did not follow him. He 

 was honoured with the top weight among the three- 

 year-olds in a field of twenty-nine for the Stewards' 

 Cup at Goodwood, but, as he started at odds of 20 to 1 

 against him, it looks as if the somewliat ' onerous ' 

 compliment were due rather to French brag about him 

 than to genuine English respect for him. At any rate 

 he did not get so much as a place, and the excuse made 

 for him was that he 'got off' badly, and that in so short 

 a race a bad start is often fatal. However the Cesare- 

 witch course, whicli he tried towards the end of the 

 same season, is not open to the same objection ; yet for 

 the Cesarewitch, again, for which also he carried the 

 hio^hest weight among the three-year-olds, he did not 



