worked. Other races, those for speed or for stamina, 

 those for two-year-olds, or for old horses, have appeared 

 to them as compensations more or less remunerative, as 

 prizes more or less glorious, but not to compare with 

 the supreme object. In truth, the Derby founded in 

 1780, the St.-Leger founded in 1776, the Two Thousand 

 Guineas, the Oaks for fillies, like the Prix du Jockey 

 Club since 1836, the Grand Prix since 1863, and the Prix 

 de Diane, since 1843,. invariably have been both in Eng- 

 land and in France the foundation of the system of 

 racing. 



" It is then to the production of a horse capable of 

 winning these races that serious breeders have devoted 

 themselves, and to that end they have in each generation 

 sought after families which have succeeded best in the 

 classics. In England, from 1834, it is the families of 

 Touchstone and Stockwell which have had the prefer- 

 ence, and finally in our time those of Galopin and St. 

 Simon. 



" A\'ith us the best breeds are less clearly fixed ; the 

 magnificent influence of the blood of Monarque, Dollar, 

 Vermont. Fitz-Gladiator for some time threw an incom- 

 parable brilliancy upon our breeding, but the value of 

 their blood has not been maintained intact. The efforts 

 of our greatest breeders to preserve their precious quali- 

 ties by inbreeding have not given results, so that recourse 

 again- was necessary to reproducers imported from Eng- 

 land. 



" The complaint is made that we do not find intact the 

 model which we had forty years ago, but that is due 

 wholly to the circumstance that the heirs of the families 

 of those days have been able to preserve the importance 

 of their position only by constantly repeated crossings 

 with new families. To prove this it is sufficient to con- 

 sult the list of winners of the Grand Prix and of the 

 Prix du Jockey Club. 



71 



