TOD SLOAN 



high, who was addicted to breaking blood vessels, but 

 he never did so after he came with us, and scored over 

 and over again. He ought to have won the Grand 

 Prix de Nice but somehow Maclntyre who rode him 

 was not in happy mood that day. He led all the way 

 until on the post he was just caught by a good horse, 

 Retz, ridden by George Stem. Another nice horse 

 was Misadventure, for whom we paid five thousand 

 francs and sold for twenty thousand francs. Londres 

 was also a great bargain at seven thousand francs. 



I must not forget that there was some compensation 

 for the disappointment over Goodwood. A French- 

 man had come over with me, a man well known in 

 Paris, who couldn't speak a word of English. Perched 

 on the top of his head was the smallest Panama hat 

 ever worn by a grown-up man. He was the success 

 on the Wednesday afternoon at Goodwood. Society 

 people and others forgot their manners and came to 

 the paddock to see the sight. It was great value. 



Of course in that Autumn of 1901 I had seriously to 

 consider what was to be done after the big losses I had 

 made in America, but acquiring these bargains in 

 horses and winning money over them too brought me 

 to the conclusion that sticking to my own business — 

 horses — was perhaps far and away the best thing to 

 do. We had Max Lebaudy's old house at Maisons 

 Laffitte, and there used to be great consultations about 

 probable purchases and how they should be placed to 

 win. Several of my friends suggested that I should 

 go on with ownership and superintend training, and 

 certainly I knew in riding gallops that I hadn't lost a 

 bit of form. 



Not a word had been said about my not getting a 

 licence for the following year, so I stuck on full of hope 

 that the Stewards would not keep the bar up for ever. 



196 



