THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1872-73-74 199 



beaten by another French horse, M. Lefevre's Flageolet, 

 so that M. Delamarre, having beaten both Flai>:eolet 

 aiid Doncaster, may be considered to have been ' cock 

 of the walk ' both in England and in France. What is 

 very remarkable, again, is that Bo'i'ard, Flageolet, and 

 Doncaster all ran for the Two Thousand, and yet none 

 of the three obtained so much as a place. 



Bo'iard's history is altogether strange and interest- 

 ing. His dam was called La Bossue (by De Clare and 

 Canezou), and her very name bewrays her. She was a 

 ' cast-ofF,' accordingly, from Lord Derby's stud, and is 

 said to have been sold into Hanover first of all, whence 

 she found her way into M. H. Delamarre's stud at Bois- 

 Eoussel. He thought, no doubt, that a daughter of 

 Canezou ought to be at least good enough to breed 

 from, and so it turned out. But she was not lucky with 

 Boston, Bombance and Boreal, her first produce re- 

 gistered in France in 1866, 1867, 1868. Next came 

 Boa (by Vermont), foaled in 1869, but he died in 1871, 

 about the time of ' les evenements.' In 1870, however, 

 she threw Boi'ard, the best horse of his year, one of the 

 best liorses ever known either in England or France ; 

 and thus she did enough at one ' throw ' to ' illus- 

 trate ' herself and to honour the memory of her illus- 

 trious dam, Canezou. At the beginning, nevertheless, 

 it looked as if La Bossue was to be as unfortunate 

 almost with her son Boi'ard as she had been with Boa, 

 and as she was afterwards with her daughter Bossette 

 (by Patricien) and her son Boiador (own brother — but 

 ' quantum mutatus ab illo ! ' — to Boiard) ; for a plagu)^ 

 venomous insect (as they relate) gat hold upon him and 

 bit him badly at two years of age, so that he could only 

 run once (unsuccessfully) in that year and was like to 

 have been ' spoilt ' for ever. A similar mishap, it may 



