FROM HOWL FOR 'RECIPROCITY' TO PRESENT DAY 317 



Surely, if we look at the performances of the 

 ' Frenchmen ' generally in England and in the Grand 

 Prix de Paris, the ' form ' shown was not that which 

 they seemed at one time to have attained ; it was not the 

 form of Fille de I'Air's day, of Vermont's, of Gladiateur's, 

 of Mortemer's and Henry's, of Boi'ard's and Flageolet's, of 

 Cliamant's, Verneuil's, and Eayon d'Or's : it was not, in 

 a word, ' reciprocity form.' Yet something very like 

 the ' reciprocity spirit ' was aroused by the achievement 

 of Plaisanterie, who, by winniug both Cesarewitch and 

 Cambridgeshire (beating Bendigo, who was afterwards 

 to win the great Eclipse Stakes), seemed to have placed 

 herself on a level with Rosebery and even with the 

 great Foxhall. No doubt Plaisanterie was the wonder 

 of the year so far as French horseflesh was concerned. 

 She had been purchased for about 32/. as a yearling or 

 two-year-old, recalling the case which has already been 

 mentioned of the ' Frenchman ' Palestro, who was pur- 

 chased as a yearling for sixteen guineas and afterwards 

 won the Cambridgeshire in 1861 ; and she suddenly 

 came out and took nearly everything by storm. At 

 two years of age she won the Prix du Premier Pas 

 (776/.) at Caen, beating Martingale, won the Grand 

 Prix de Dieppe (876/.), beating Barberine, and was 

 second by a short head to The Condor for the Grand 

 Criterium at Paris. That was her ' record ' at two 

 years of age, in 1884. In 1885 she won twelve events 

 out of thirteen in France and the two great handicaps 

 of Newmarket ; she won the Prix de la Seine (536/.), 

 tlie Prix des Cars (345/.), the Prix Saint- James (w.o., 

 140/.), the Prix Fould (174/., w.o.), all at Paris Spring 

 Meeting; the Prix d'Apremont (428/., beating Fra 

 Diavolo) at Chantilly ; the Prix du Cedre (433/.) and 

 the Prix Seymour (470/., beating Barberine) at Paris 



