176 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



for though M. Delaniarre did not wi^ the French Oaks 

 as well as the French Derby, yet, on the other hand, 

 he in the Grand Prix defeated the winner of the English 

 Derby and the winner of both the French and the 

 English Oaks (Fille de I'Air.) Of tlie distinguished 

 pair, Bigarreau and Sornette, the former went into 

 temporary retirement after the Grand Prix, emerged in 

 1872, did nothing noteworthy, and was told off to the 

 stud, where he cannot be said to have ' illustrated him- 

 self very greatly as a sire ; the latter went on running, 

 became quite a household word in England, or the 

 ' horsey ' parts thereof, and came to such a characteristic 

 end when she was taken out of training at the end of 

 1871 that a short memoir of her may not be thrown 

 away. 



This ' child of Light,' well named Sornette (from 

 her lightness, frivolity, fantasticalness), was a very in- 

 terestinoj character. She was from the first as ' wild 

 and wayward ' as the ' Queen of the May ' (and far more 

 dansrerous), and there was no more knowing; ' where to 

 have her ' than there was in the famous case of ' Dame 

 Quickly.' In the early days of her training, as a year- 

 Ym<^ or lifteen-months-ling, she escaped from the man 

 who held her by the leading-rein, bolted into the forest 

 at Villebon, and was souglit in vain for two days, when 

 she ' turned up,' it is said, ' permiscuous.' Like our 

 own Caller Ou she had her fancies in running and would 

 only ' go ' when she had her own way (if anybody could 

 discover what that was on any particular day) ; and 

 when, upon being taken out of training, she was 

 turned h)ose in the happy breeding-grounds of Villebon, 

 she tore hke a mad thing ('which,' as the late Mr. 

 Eobson would have said, ' she wor '), and a blind one 

 to boot, down an alley where was a heap of stakes, 



