158 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



nial, at the Bibury Club Meeting ; and unplaced to 

 Achievement, D'Estournel, Vauban, &c., for the July- 

 Stakes at Newmarket). Of other reputed French 

 ' cracks ' in this year, 1866, such as Gontran (four 

 years), belonging to ' Major Fridolin,' and the three- 

 year-olds — the once promising Y. Monarque (own brother 

 to Hospodar and winner the year before of the Cham- 

 pagne Stakes at Bibury Club Meeting), Auguste (who 

 was at one time a good favourite for our Derby in the 

 teeth of Lord Lyon), Baionnette (second by a head 

 only for the One Thousand and second for the French 

 Derby, and ' second for everything,' if not third), all 

 belonging to Count F. de Lagrange, and tutti quanti, 

 including La Favorite (unplaced for the Cambridge- 

 shire)— none of them justified their ' crack'fulness 

 either in France or in England. Y. Monarque, the 

 hope of France, went amiss in 1865. Indeed, the 

 measure of the French three-year-olds of 1866 may be 

 taken through the Grand Prix de Paris, which (with 

 Lord Lyon, Savernake, and other English horses not 

 entered or not allowed to run on Sunday) was won, as 

 has been said, by the Duke of Beaufort's moderate 

 Ceylon, there being only four ' Frenchmen ' (Auguste, 

 Cinna, Maravedis, and Fernan Cortes) in a field of eleven. 

 Howbeit Major Fridolin's Sultan won the Stewards' 

 Cup at Goodwood. Count F. de Lagrange's Plutus 

 (winner of the Great Eastern Handicap and a great 

 French sire) was bred in England ; but Auguste (' bred 

 in France ') won the Drawing-Eoom Stakes at Goodwood. 

 The French were better off the next year, 1867, 

 though that was emphatically, so far as England was 

 concerned, the year of Hermit and Achievement, both 

 English from crest to coronet, from muzzle to ' frog.' 

 The French ' cracks ' in that year were Patricien (three 



