152 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



weight for a three-year-old of 9 st. 12 lbs. Still he was 

 not without backers ; indeed, he started equal first 

 favourite with Moldavia (three years, 6 st. 2 lbs.), and 

 a ' backer,' when remonstrated with by a friend for 

 backing a horse to do what no horse could be expected 

 to do, answered complacently, ' Ah ! but he isn't a 

 horse ; he's some sort of machine.' Gladiateur in 1865 

 had ' swept the board: ' he had won ' the triple crown ' 

 ■ — the Two Thousand, the Derby, and the St. Leger — 

 as before him West Australian alone had done ; and he 

 had also won the valuable Grand Prix (which was not 

 in existence for ' the West ' to win), thus (with minor 

 thinijs which he ' took in his stride ') bring:infT to his 

 owner (in stakes alone) upwards of 26,000/., a sum 

 unprecedented, unequalled, and probably never to be 

 attained again (though Ormonde might have done as 

 well, had he been entered and run for the Grand Prix) 

 by a single horse in a single year. 



In 1866 Gladiateur scored six victories (having been 

 successful in every attempt he made) — at Newmarket 

 (w.o. for the Derby Trial Stakes and the Claret Stakes), 

 at Paris (won the Grand Prix de ITmperatrice, now Prix 

 Kainbow, by twenty lengths, from Fumee and Vertu- 

 gadin, and La Coupe from Le Mandarin, Gontran, and 

 Eonce), at Ascot (won the Gold Cup by forty lengths 

 from Regalia, with Breadalbane ' trottincf in ' a lono[ 

 way behind), and at Paris again (won the Grand Prix 

 de FEmpereur, now Prix Gladiateur, witli Vertugadiii 

 second). For this last race he was ridden by George 

 Pratt (brotlier of the more celebrated Charles Pratt), 

 for 11. Grimshaw, who had hitherto always ridden 

 Gladiateur (save in liis two-year-old races, for which 

 he was ridden by A. Edwards), had lately been thrown 

 from a doi2;-cart and killed on the Newmarket Road. 



