LA TOUCQUES, VEKMOUT, FILLL DE L'AIR, GLADIATEUR 143 



with Gladiateiir, and it had been so ah^eady with the 

 ' American ' Umpire, No doubt it is usually the ' tag, 

 rag, and bobtail ' that raise the outcry or whisper the 

 suspicion, but not alwa^^s. 



To resume : Fille de I'Air could not give the weislit 

 to Ely in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Ascot, won 

 the Brighton Biennial, won both Newmarket Oaks and 

 Newmarket Derby, won a free handicap at Newmarket 

 Houghton, and succumbed not ingloriously (under her 

 greater weight) to Master Eichard and Baragah in 

 another free handicap at the same meeting. Her 

 defeat in the Grand Prix de Paris was expected by the 

 friends of Blair Athol of course, but the race was sup- 

 posed to lie between these two, winners of the English 

 Oaks and English Derby, and the defeat of the latter 

 has been regarded as a ' fluke,' due partly to the effects 

 of the sea voyage and partly to tlie fact that his jockey 

 confined his efforts to beatino- Fille de I'Air, forsettinsr 

 or neglecting Vermont altogether. But, as we have 

 seen, Vermont, measured through Fille de I'Air in sub- 

 sequent contests, was no mean antagonist ; and it is not 

 impossible that Bois-Eoussel, if he had not ' broken 

 down,' might have beaten the three. Vermont too, 

 strangely enough, became the sire of Boiard, who him- 

 self, in 1873, defeated another winner of the English 

 Derby (Doncaster, beaten also by Flageolet) for the 

 Grand Prix de Paris. 



At four years of age Fille de I'Air did wonderfully 

 well in France and in England, winning the Grand Prix 

 de I'lmperatrice (now Prix Eainbow) and La Coupe at 

 Paris, and several events, including the Alexandra 

 Plate, in England, though she was beaten for the Ascot 

 Cup, for which Ely and General Peel ran their famous 

 dead heat. She then went to the stud at Dangu, where 



