'THE AMERICAN YEAR,' iS8r. i6i 



Foxliall, as all persons versed in the lore of the turf 

 are aware, lost the City and Suburban Handicap, run 

 at theEpsomSpring Meeting — havingmet his conqueror 

 in the gallant Bend Or, a J^orby winner of the year 

 before; but after the lapse of a few weeks Mr. Keene's 

 horse crossed the Channel, and won the greatest prize of 

 the French turf, the Grand Prize of Paris, a race the 

 value of which is seldom surpassed even by the Derby ; 

 in 1881 the stake- amounted to £G,874, besides the 

 amount which might bo won in bets. Tristan, the 

 horse which was second to Foxhall in the Grand 

 Prize, has since proved himself a steed of metal ; so 

 also has Fiddler, the fourth in the strut^'-ole, thus 

 demonstrating that the animal wliich secured the 

 trophy, as, indeed, was afterv/ards proved, was a horse 

 of mark and merit. 



But a grander coup was accomplished when Foxhall 

 scored the double event of Cesarewir.ch and Cam- 

 bridgeshire. These ara undoubtedly the two greatest 

 races of the handicap order wliich are run in Enghmd, 

 and for one horse to secure both events with the 

 weight carried by Foxhall was an altogether unex- 

 pected feat. In the Cesarewitch he was loaded with 

 7 St. 12 lb,, which, for a three-year-old, was a suffi- 

 ciently heavy iraj)ost when the distance over which it 

 had to be carried is taken into account. Robert the 

 Devil, also a Grand Prize winner, and a victor in the 

 St. Leger as well, had won the previous year's Cesare- 

 witch, carrying the unprecedented weight of 8 st. 6 lb., 

 a weight which many persons, supposed to be good 

 judges, asserted it was ' impossible' to win with; but 

 the horse won, nevertheless. When Julius, a three- 



11 



