'The French Thoroughbred 



Gladiator by Gladiator (son of Partisan) from Taffrail by Sheet Anchor from "the 

 Warwick mare" by Ardrossan. He was 15 hands three inches high at two years, 

 when he went over to England and won the Clearwell stakes (won by Hospodar two 

 years before) and ran a dead heat for third place in the Prendergast Stakes with a 

 very moderate horse called Longdown; and in the Criterion Stakes (won by Hospodar 

 in 1862) he ran unplaced to Chattanooga, who was good but nothing great. Glad- 

 iateur therefore retired for the winter with the reputation of "a good colt 'but not 

 great." Indeed, the best English judges placed him below Hospodar and about equal 

 with Gontran and Le Mandarin, of his own age, little dreaming of the surprise in 

 store for them next year. 



The year 1865 will go down to all time as "The French Year." Gladiateur did 

 not take part in any of the early events in France, but showed up at Newmarket in 

 time for the Two Thousand Guineas, for which there were only seven starters, every 

 one being afraid of Liddington, the best two-year-old of 1864, and Bedminster, who 

 was reported to have done a great trial. The latter was therefore made a favorite 

 at 100 to 40, Liddington 3 to I, Breadalbane (brother to Blair Athol) 5 to i, Zambesi 

 10 to i, and Kangaroo 25 to i. Grimshaw was on the French colt and came in by 

 a narrow margin, two necks and two heads being all that separated Gladiateur from 

 Breadalbane, who was fifth. The finish did not therefore indicate Gladiateur to be 

 anything great. But in the Derby he showed his true caliber for he was "pocketed" 

 in all the early stages of the race and had to go around all his horses before reaching 

 Tattenham Corner, winning with consummate ease from Christmas Carol and Eltham, 

 whose price was 33 to i, which made people say it was "all wrong" and "an off year" 

 in England. The French spectators kissed one another in their delight and the cry 

 of "Revanche Pour Waterloo" was heard long after the winning jockey had weighed 

 out and the horse had been led away. "When Gladiateur gallops, the other horses seem 

 to stand still," said a London paper, the next day; and the Prince of Wales gave a 

 dinner to Comte de Lagrange, at which Lord Derby, a descendant of the nobleman for 

 whom the great Epsom race was named, made the speech of the evening, in which 

 he warmly congratulated him and his great horse and assured him of England's kindly 

 feelings toward himself and La Belle France. 



The Grand Prix de Paris saw a good field assembled to meet the horse with 

 English laurels on his neck. There were Gontran, winner of the French Derby; 

 Vertugadin, brother to Vermont, who had won this race last year, beating the big 

 and bullocky Blair Athol ; Tourmalet, winner of the Poule des Produits ; Mandarin, 

 winner of the Prix de 1'Empereur, and Todleben, by Muscovite, the only English horse 

 in the race. In order to make the race appear exciting, Grimshaw had orders to 

 hold his horse back until the straight was reached and then set sail for home. The 

 boy obeyed the orders faithfully but deafening roars went up when they saw Gladiateur 

 come on with a whirlwind rush and mow down his horses till he finally got the 

 lead and won in a canter by two lengths from Vertugadin, Tourmalet being third 

 and Gontran fourth. The greatest horse France had ever seen went back to England 

 about a week later but took no part in the Ascot meeting. He came out at Goodwood, 

 however, to win the Drawing Room Stakes by forty lengths, in all but a walk from 

 his old antagonist Longdown ; walked over for the Bentinck Memorial at three miles ; 

 went back to France again, to beat Longdown one more, "by a town block" for the 

 Newmarket Derby, after that, carried off the St. Leger ; and finally started in the 

 Cambridgeshire Handicap, for which he carried 138 pounds. It is quite unnecessary 

 to say that he finished "in the steerage." 



In 1866, he had six victories without a defeat. At the Newmarket Spring meeting 

 he w. o. for both the Derby Trial and the Claret Stakes; then went back to Paris 

 where he beat Fumee and Vertugadin sixty yards in the Prix de I'lmperatrice and La 



