840 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



or you might take a different view, my boy, might you 

 not ? 



A. I don't know, sir. I can only see quite plainly 

 that, whatever may be the case with breeding, it is 

 impossible for more than two or three owners of race 

 horses to make much out of running for stakes. And 



o 



to the breeders I would point out that the French 

 ' crack ' horses have lately been almost ' bred in Eng- 

 land,' as in the ' good old times.' We have already 

 spoken of Frontin and Little Duck and Plaisanterie ; 

 and of the chief French 'cracks' of this year (1886) 

 — -Lapin (four years). The Condor (four years), Upas 

 (three years), Verdiere (three years), Sauterelle (three 

 years), Sakoimtala (three years), Gamin (three years), 

 Jupin (three years), Saint-Honore (three years), 

 Presta (three years), Sycomore (tliree years) — up to the 

 date of the Grand Prix de Paris — we find that the 

 eight whose names are printed in italics are either of 

 Englisli sire or English dam, or both — that is, eight out 

 of eleven. And, if we take the winners of the thirty- 

 six races run at the Paris Summer Meeting of this year 

 (1886), we find that the principal event (the most valu- 

 able — save the Eclipse Stakes — in the world, at any 

 rate in Europe), which is the Grand Prix de Paris, was 

 won by Minting (an English horse), and that the other 

 thirty-five races were won by twenty-eight difierent 

 animals — namely, Indien (by Silvio, Vertugadin, or 

 Salteador and Miss Ida), Hubic (by Salvator and La 

 Jonchere), Estelle (by Pellegrino and Ethel Blair), Krou- 

 mir (by Androcles and Venitienne), Sauterelle (by Saxi- 

 frage and SoUiciteuse), Messagere II. (by Saxifrage and 

 Miss Capucine), Clariiiette (by Plutus and Convent), 

 Jupin (by Silvio and Juliana), Plaisance (by Saxifrage 

 and The Princess), Albany (by Salvator and Bariolette), 



