148 The American Thoroughbred 



Compe by ten lengths from Le Mandarin, Gontran and Ronce ; came back to England 

 to win the Ascot Cup by forty lengths from Regalia (Oaks winner of the previous 

 year) and Breadalbane, who was beaten away off. My mother (now four years dead) 

 saw that race. Gladiateur was very sore forward, so Jennings told Grimshaw to get 

 him down that hill as easily as possible. "It don't matter if you're a quarter of a 

 mile behind them," said Tom, "if you don't break him down, for as soon as he touches 

 the flat, he'll devour 'em." It turned out just as the shrewd trainer had told him. 

 "Grim" waited and waited until he was nearly 400 yards to the bad when he reached 

 the base of the hill. Count Lagrange and Lord Falmouth sat in front of where my 

 parents sat. Lord Falmouth said : 



"He's a great horse, but I fear that Grimshaw has waited too long." 



"Cest 1' instruction, monsieur. II veut gagne !" replied the Count. 



"But look where he is nearly a quarter of a mile in the rear," said Boscawen. 



"N'importe, mon ami II veut gagne." 



Just then Grimshaw shifted his seat and rolled the bit through Gladiateur's mouth 

 and he tore along like a mad horse, on a stride of not less than twenty-four feet. Inch 

 by inch he crawled up till it became yard and yard. He overhauled the fast-fading 

 Breadalbane and then picked up the mare about 300 yards from home, winning in a 

 common canter by forty lengths. If the French were glad of his Derby victory, they 

 were now absolutely frantic. With over 40,000 people on the track, less than one-tenth 

 that number of Frenchmen furnished the noise for the entire crowd. One week from 

 that day, while riding along the Newmarket road with a friend in a dog cart, Harry 

 Grimshaw, as honest a lad as ever sat upon a horse, was thrown out and broke his 

 neck. George Pratt was then selected to ride Gladiateur in what was destined to 

 be his last race. He was taken back to Paris, where he won the Grand Prix de 

 1'Empereur (now called the Prix Gladiateur) which he won in hollow style from a 

 good field, Vertugadin being second again. I have heard he carried 153 pounds in 

 this but cannot write understandingly as I have never seen any printed details of the 

 race. He then retired to the stud and was a flat failure, getting no really good per- 

 formers and only one sire Grandmaster, sent to Australia of whom I will speak at 

 length in another department of this work. 



"The triple crown" of England has been won nine times. My own belief is that 

 Ormonde, who died in this State, last spring, was the best of the nine, with Gladiateur 

 and Isinglass about tied for second place ; and Rock Sand, Lord Lyon and Diamond 

 Jubilee at the foot of the class. Gladiateur was certainly a better horse than West 

 Australian, the first horse to achieve the triple feat : West Australian, at four years, 

 carried 117 pounds, and beat Kingston, 5 years, 126 pounds, and Rataplan, 4 years, 

 117 pounds, for the Ascot Cup of 1854. Under the present scale of weights, West 

 Australian and Rataplan would have had to carry 126 on each and Kingston 131, which 

 would have given him the race beyond doubt. Contrast this with Gladiateur's defeat 

 (at 122 pounds for himself and Breadalbane and 119 for the mare) of his rivals at 

 Ascot, in which he outran them a quarter of a mile in the last ten furlongs and I 

 don't think "the West" makes any show whatever against the galloping machine from 

 France. At the outbreak (or shortly afterwards) of the Franco-Prussian war, Comte 

 de Lagrange sold all his horses ; and Gladiateur became the property of Mr. Blenkiron 

 for 5,800 guineas, to be resold, two years later to Mr. Harcourt for 7,000 guineas, when 

 Blair Athol brought 12,500 guineas and Breadalbane about half that sum. You want 

 to read some articles contributed by Lord Suffolk to the Badminton Library concern- 

 ing Gladiateur ; and you will readily understand how it was that he "donkeylicked" 

 all the best horses of his day and generation. Gladiateur was by long odds the best 

 horse ever foaled in France. No matter what horse was second, the son of Monarque 

 was indisputably first. It is worthy of remark that several of his French competitors 



