342 HOESE-RACING IN FRANCE 



English sweepstakes or handicap, or two or three of 

 them in succession. 



Q. Can you enumerate briefly the chief breeders, 

 owners, and racers of horses to whom you consider the 

 French Turf to have been principally indebted from the 

 first foundation of the Societe d'Encouragement to the 

 present day ? 



A. I will endeavour to do so. First of all I should 

 put the State (Administration des Haras), because (not- 

 withstanding its open or secret opposition — at various 

 times — to the views of the Societe) it has always done 

 good service from the days of Colbert by the introduc- 

 tion of English and other (that is, Eastern) thorough- 

 breds (at Le Pin, Pompadour, and Eosieres especially), 

 and because to it was due the importation of Gladiator 

 (in 1846). Then, just glancing at the intermediate 

 services of Charles X. and the Dauphin (with the 

 Meudon stud and Eowlston, imported in 1827), I 

 would halt at the Duke d'Orleans (who took over the 

 Meudon stud, bred Eomulus, Nautilus, Giges, Quoniara, 

 &c., employed George Edwards as trainer-in-chief, and 

 Edward Pavis as jockey-in -chief, and formed the race- 

 course at ChantiUy), Lord Henry Seymour (who had 

 his stud at Sablonville, introduced Eoyal Oak and 

 bred Poetess, employed T. Carter as trainer-in-chief, 

 and through him gave to the Frencli Turf the inestim- 

 able services of H. and T. Jennings), M. Eieussec (with his 

 stud at Viroflay, where Eainbow stood), and M. Eugene 

 Aumont (who, though he got into trouble about 

 Tontine, founded the great horse-breeding and horse- 

 racing establishment which his brother, M. Alexandre 

 Aumont, brought into celebrity by the purchase of 

 Lord H. Seymour's Poetess — dam of Monarque — and 

 by founding the stud at Victot, and by securing the 



