338 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



the meaning of ' reciprocity ' ? In the former case, the 

 condition of the Enghsh owners is hopeless ; for the 

 French horses are virtually the produce of the English, 

 and all the French know about breeding and horse- 

 racing is what they have learnt from the English. If, 

 then, tlie latter have lost their old skill and knowledge, 

 it is difficult to see how ' reciprocity ' can help them. 

 If, however, the claimants of ' reciprocity,' feeling that 

 English horses are still (as there is good reason to 

 believe) superior to the French nine years out of ten 

 (or even more), desire ' reciprocity ' in order that they 

 may avenge themselves of their adversaries (who may 

 be successful one year out of ten in England) by going 

 over to France and making a clean sweep of everything 

 valuable for nine consecutive years on the French race- 

 courses, the idea is not magnanimous, and, moreover, is 

 likely to defeat itself, as it would very soon create a 

 distaste for horse-racing in France and would break up 

 the turf there. I would say, further, that the outcry 

 ibr ' reciprocity ' is absurd on another ground : as long 

 as the English stakes are more valuable than the French, 

 it is not likely that a sane English owner would en- 

 danger his prospects at home by going for a smaller 

 stake abroad, and if, from the quality of his horses, he 

 should have no prospects at all at home, what would 

 be his prospects in France, where (by the hypothesis on 

 which the claim for reciprocity rests) the native horses 

 would be at least as good as his own, if not better? 

 The English, in fact, would be in the position in which 

 the French formerly were, when these latter used to 

 send their horses over to England to be beaten, as 

 almost a foregone conclusion, but with the express pur- 

 pose of learning and profiting by defeat, breeding from 

 the blood of the victors, hiring the men who trained 



