VNIVERSI1 V 



The French 'Thoroughbred 141 



as that great steeplechaser, Franc-Tireur. Mons. Lafitte lives in history by having 

 named for him the Prix de Chateau-Lafitte at the Chantilly Autumn races. 



One night, in December, 1867, a poor sewing girl fainted away from hunger and 

 exhaustion not far from where the little Rue de Gomboust cuts into the magnificent 

 Avenue de 1'Opera. A splendid carriage was driving by at the time and the driver 

 halted his horses. An aged man stepped out and he and his coachman lifted the help- 

 less girl into the sumptuous vehicle and drove away. 



"Poor child," said a bystander, "she has been rescued from poverty to meet a worse 

 fate." 



"Pauvre enfant, pourquoi ?" retorted a young rake who stood beside him. "C'est 

 la bonne fortune ! C'est le voiture du Prince Anatole Demidoff." 



It was indeed the party referred to, one of the original eight non-official members 

 of the French Jockey Club. The girl's name was Celine Montaland, the daughter of a 

 poor old couple in Burgundy; and she was exceedingly beautiful. The next week she 

 appeared in the Bois du Boulogne, the handsomest dressed woman there and in the 

 most magnificent equipage. Finding that she possessed an unusually sweet voice, the 

 old Prince, whose income from his mines in the Ural mountains in Russia was about 

 two million francs annually, gave her a musical education and she sang in opera bouffe, 

 not only in Paris and London, but in New York also. She appeared there in the win- 

 ter of 1871-2 and it was his infatuation for her and his desertion of Josephine Mans- 

 field tor the fair-lipped Lais of France that eventually cost James Fisk, the "Prince 

 of Erie/' 'his life. 



I. think I have gone far enough in detailing the early importations of horses into 

 France from England, as well as the personnel of the primary founders of the Societe 

 1'Encouragernent, but a word as to Mr. Charles Leroy may not be wholly out of place, 

 for he it was who imported, along after 1845, such great English performers as Elthiron 

 (brother to Hobbie Noble and the Reiver) who won the City and Suburban at Epsom; 

 Ion, second in both Derby and St. Leger of 1838 and sire of the Derby winner, Wild 

 Dayrell ; Womersley by Irish Birdcatcher, out of Cinizelli, who produced one winner 

 each of the Oaks, St. Leger and Two Thousand ; and last, but not least, "Lazy Laner- 

 cost," who won the Ascot and Newcastle Cups of 1841 and third to Charles XII and 

 Euclid in the St. Leger of 1839, the former of the twain winning in the run-orf of a 

 dead heat. 



From the formation of the Societe d'Encouragement to the proclamation of the 

 Second Empire, by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, that organization seems to have had a 

 severe struggle for existence. From 1833 to 1840 the average number of horses 

 trained enough to bring to the post was only 59; from 1849 to 1858, the average had 

 grown to 125 ; and after 1858 to as high as 160, up to which time no one thought it possi- 

 ble to carry off an English Derby or even a first-class handicap. Some of the best 

 horses were kept in training as long as seven seasons. Hervine, by Mr. Waggs, won 

 the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) in 1851 and was seen in a race at Chantilly four years 

 later, running for a plate of $600, and this, too 3 ten weeks after having dropped a foal. 

 By 1845 the number of owners had been increased by the addition of such spirited turf- 

 men as Messrs. Alexander Aumont, Auguste Lupin, Latache de Fay, Prince Marc de 

 Beaurau, the Comte des Cars, Baron N. Rothschild, the Comte de Morny, Baron A. 

 Schickler, Mons. Robin (breeder of the famous Souvenir), Henri Delamarre, Alphonse 

 de Belaque, the Marquis de Roffignac and about twenty others of less note. As for the 

 trainers and jockeys, they were English almost without an exception. Among the 

 jockeys we find the names of Webb, Hall, Boast, North, Edwards, Pavis, Spreoty and 

 Nat Flatman, who rode Voltigeur, and Orlando before him, in all their great races ; 

 and Henry Lamplugh, who rode the great P'ranc-Picard in all of his many victories 

 "over the sticks." Another of these was Kitchener, who rode Red Deer to victory in 



