156 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



CHAPTER IX. 



PROM THE ' TURN OF THE TIDE ' TO THE ' DECHEANCE.' 



After tlie flood came the ebb. The year 18G5 had 

 been emphatically ' Gladiateur's year,' the year of 

 French fulness and glory; the year 18GG (with the ex- 

 ception of Gladiateur's Ascot Cup) was as emphatically 

 ' Lord Lyon's year,' the year of French poverty in 

 horseflesh. So poor were the French three-year-olds, 

 indeed, that the Duke of Beaufort had no difficulty in 

 winning the Grand Prix de Paris with so moderate a 

 horse as Ceylon, neither Lord Lyon (a member of the 

 Sunday Observance Society) nor the Bribery colt (after- 

 wards called Savernake, of the same persuasion) being 

 entered. What made the matter more remarkable was 

 that out of eleven runners four only were French, all 

 the rest being English. Still, in England, some French 

 two-year-olds did well — to wit, Trocadero, Nemea, 

 Dragon, Atalante (the very last ' mount ' of the un- 

 fortunate Harry Grimshaw), and others. 



Moreover there were other little consolations — in the 

 Grand Prix de I'Empereur at Paris, for instance, the 

 Marquis of Hastings's The Duke and Blue Pdband and 

 the Duke of Beaufort's Mr. Pitt were beaten by Vertu- 

 gadin, Baionnette, and Gontran. The other French 

 ' cracks ' were : La Fortune (four years, winner of the 

 Prix du Cadran), Yictorieuse (three years, winner of 



