232 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



This proud boast marks the chmax in the history 

 of French horse-racing ; our neighbours evidently did 

 not Hke the idea of being excluded from our races, but 

 they also evidently, and not without reason, believed 

 that they had reached a period when their thorough- 

 bred stock would be able to compete in the markets of 

 the world on equal terms, to say the least of it, with 

 the English. And it was not to be very long before a 

 French horse. Flageolet, would have his services at the 

 stud put at the 200 guineas charged for those of a 

 Stockwell (during a very limited period) and for a 

 Hermit (who afterwards, however, attained to 250 

 guineas). 



Perhaps in England the majority of thoughtful per- 

 sons agreed with Lord Ailesbury rather than with Lord 

 Falmouth. They argued thus : You cannot eat your 

 cake and have it ; if you let the French buy your best 

 blood (not for nothing, hien entendu, and sometimes 

 they had very bad bargains) you cannot expect to beat 

 them for ever and ever without a check. Nay, if you 

 sow the wind you must not be surprised if you reap 

 the whirlwind. And things are not nearly so bad as 

 that. The foreigners, French, German, Austrian, Hun- 

 garian, Russian, American, and tutti quanti^ have been 

 excellent customers of ours for a hundred years or 

 more (off and on) ; yet they have won only two Derbies 

 (1865 and 1876), three ' Oakses ' (1864, 1872, and 

 1876), one Two Thousand (1865), two One Thousands 

 (ungrammatical as it sounds, in 1872 and 1876), and 

 one St. Leger (1865) up to the end of this year 1876 ; 

 and what is that among so many? Besides, nobody 

 will contend that we opened our races to them because 

 we thought they had a good chance of beating us ; it 

 was because we hked the colour of the money they 



