THE 'BIG STABLE' 125 



and at Cluintilly Spring Meeting the Frencli Oaks with 

 Stradella (after a dead heat with Noehe), which Stra- 

 delhi, as men said, ought to have won tlie French Derby, 

 for which she Avas beaten by Souvenir. Of the other 

 principal Spring events at Paris Baron A. Scliickler 

 (who won the Poide des Prodiuts — now Prix Daru — 

 with Provocateur and what is now the Grande 

 Poule des Produits with Choisy-le-Eoi) and M. Henri 

 Delamarre (who won the Prix de la Ville de Paris with 

 Telegraphe) were the heroes. Moreover the victory of 

 Choisy-le-Ptoi had been a great blow for the ' Big Stable,' 

 Avhich had run first and second with Benjamin and 

 Genealogie ; but they were both disqualified on the 

 ground of a ' cross,' and the race was awarded to the 

 third. 



The French Derby, it has been said, was won by 

 Souvenir ; and thereby hangs a tale, a tale of North v. 

 South and West, much as with us in the old times 

 it used to be a struggle for supremacy on tlie Turf 

 between the Northern and the Southern horses, both 

 before and after the day when Phenomenon (then 

 unnamed) was beaten for the Derby of 1783 by Saltram 

 and others. For be it recalled to mind that France 

 had been divided for all 'horsey' purposes once u])on 

 a time into three ' circumscriptions ' or ' districts ' — • 

 North (in which probably was merged East, as tlie 

 latter is not specified), South, and West. Tlie head- 

 quarters of tlie North were at Cliantilly, under the 

 immediate patronage of tlie French Jockey Club ; the 

 South and West were more particularly under the w'mg 

 of the Administration des Haras (with ' Arab ' views 

 and tendencies), and their horses, when sent to compete 

 at Paris or Ghantilly, were considered to be of such 

 intrinsic inferiority that they received an allowance 



