102 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



11. MM. Hemart's (at La Channoye, near Epernay, 

 with Atom, son of Phantom and Mite, for stud horse in 

 chief). 



12. Lord Henry Seymour's (at Sablonville,with Eoyal 

 Oak, son of Catton and sire of Poetess, wlio was the dam 

 of both Her vine and Monarque, for stud horse in chief). 



We liave ah'eady seen that, at the foundation of tlie 

 French Jockey Ckib, there was no decent public race- 

 course (so far as the man in the street or the members 

 of the Ckib themselves knew) in France until the idea 

 of making one at Chantilly — an idea which arose, it is 

 said, out of a ' scratch ' race between Prince de LabanofF 

 (or LobanofT) and some of liis friends (including 

 Viscount de Hedouville and the celebrated rider M. 

 de Normandie, the winner of the race) — was adopted 

 by the Duke d'Orleans, representative of the Duke 

 d'Aumale (to whom the property was bequeathed by 

 the Prince de Conde) and promptly carried out — so 

 promptly that by the end of the year 1833 a pro- 

 gramme was drawn up for the spring of 1834, though 

 the French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club) did not 

 (and could not very well, if the condition of entry 

 as yearlings were to be observed from the start) take 

 place till 1836. The modest 5,000 francs given by 

 the Club as added money, indeed, were not voted before 

 June 24, 1835 ; but probably the name and conditions 

 had previously been settled. The Prix de Diane, or 

 French Oaks (with similar conditions and a smaller 

 ' dotation ' — only 3,000 francs for some years, though it 

 was 6,000 ' by subscription ' the first year), did not begin 

 till 1843, when Prince Marc de Beauvau's Nativa won). 



All this time the Paris meetings remained without 

 any ' hippodrome ' at which the merest plater would 

 not have been justified in turning up his nose ; and so 



