HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



CHAPTER VL 



FRANC PICARD AND HIS TIMES. 



If any justification were needed for harking back a few- 

 years, and leaving ' tlie flat ' for a ' spin across country,' 

 the history of the legendary French steeple-chaser 

 Franc Picard (' Frank Pickard,' of course, among his 

 Englisli friends and enemies) would be ample ; for, 

 steeple-chaser though he was for the greater part of his 

 life, he was thoroughbred, and perhaps did more than 

 any other creature on four legs to eradicate the heresy 

 of ' demi-sang ' (the ' half-bred ' theory) and to fix 

 eternally in its place — among the French — the true 

 creed of ' pur sang ' (the ' thoroughbred ' theory). More- 

 over his history will take us to racecourses other than 

 those on which the great French races were run, and 

 will give us an opportunity of observing how ' hippo- 

 dromes ' had been increasing and multiplying, as well 

 as improving, in the various parts of France from the 

 earliest days of the French Jockey Club to the era of 

 Monarque. 



We will retrace our steps, first of all, no further 

 back than the year 1846, in which there was foaled at 

 the stud of the Marquis de Saint-Clou (it is said) a 

 thoroughbred colt (by Royal Oak or Nautilus and 

 Niobe, the dam ' bred in France ') to which was given 

 the name of Babouino. At three years of age he ran 

 without success in all manner of races on the flat. In 



