take place at Amiens, Caen, Nantes, Versailles, Moulins and other towns; and there were stakes for two-year-olds in the spring, though of late years the appearance of the young horses has been postponed to the 1st of August. Progress was rapid, and in 1863 two important events were contested for the first time, the Prix du Prince Impérial, which was designed to balance the English St Leger, but for obvious reasons faded out of the programme, and the Grand Prix de Paris, an international race for three-year-olds, run at Longchamps over a distance of 1 mile 7 furlongs, and now the most valuable stake in Europe. In 1909 the prize was £14,071. The first Grand Prix fell to an English horse, Mr Savile’s The Ranger; two years later it was won by Gladiateur, winner of the English Derby and the property of the comte de Lagrange, who raced equally in France and in England; the duke of Beaufort’s Ceylon was successful in 1866, and the marquis of Hastings’ Earl in 1868. Mr Savile’s Cremorne followed up his Derby victory by a victory at Longchamps in 1872, as did Mr Baltazzi’s Kisber four years later. English horses were also victorious in 1874 (Mr W. R. Marshall’s Trent), in 1878 (Prince Soltykoff’s Thurio), in 1880 (Mr C. Brewer’s Robert the Devil), in 1881 (Mr Keene’s Foxhall, who, however, should rather rank as an American horse), in 1882 (Mr Rymill’s Bruce), in 1885 (Mr Cloete’s Paradox), in 1886 (Mr Vyner’s Minting); and in 1906 Major Eustace Loder’s Derby winner Spearmint. During the first 23 years of the Grand Prix (owing to the war the race did not take place in 1871) the stake fell to English horses—if Kisber and Foxhall be included—on twelve occasions, and generally to English jockeys. In recent years, however, French owners have held their own. In not a few respects racing is managed more judiciously than in England. The courses, for one thing, are better tended and maintained. The five- and six-furlong races for others than two-year-olds, which are so common at English meetings, are comparatively rare in France, and the value of the prizes in an average day’s racing is considerably higher across the Channel than in England. A very large percentage of trainers and jockeys are English, and the former are, as a rule, quite as expert as at Newmarket and elsewhere. Transatlantic methods have been introduced by American jockeys since 1899. From the middle of February until the middle of December a race meeting within easy reach of Paris takes place almost every day, except during August, when the sport is carried on in the provinces, notably at Deauville. Near Paris, the chief centre after Longchamps is Maisons Laffitte. At Longchamps, early in October, a race called the Prix du Conseil Municipal, worth £4000, for three-year-olds and upwards, over a mile and a half, was organized in 1893, and has usually attracted English horses, Mr Wallace Johnstone’s Best Man having been successful in 1894, and Mr Sullivan’s Winkfield’s Pride the following year. Except when the Whip is challenged for and the challenge decided over the Beacon Course at Newmarket, no race is run in England over a longer distance than two miles and 6 furlongs; but in France the Prix Gladiateur, of £1200 and a work of art value £100, 3 miles 7 furlongs, creates considerable interest at Longchamps in the autumn.
The first recognized steeplechase in France took place at Croix de Berny, and was won by the comte de Vaublanc’s May-fly, all the horses at that time being ridden by gentlemen. Sport does not seem to have been carried on with much spirit, for it is said that the Steeplechasing. death of an animal called Barcha, in 1839, nearly led to the abandonment of the meeting; and it was not till 1863, when the Société des Steeplechases de France was founded, that the business was resolutely taken in hand. Gravelle and Vincennes were the principal centres until 1873, when the Société obtained possession of the ground at Auteuil, where the excellent course now in use was laid out. In 1874 twelve days’ racing took place here, the card each day including three steeplechases and a hurdle race, the “hurdles,” however, being small fences, as they are at present. The Grand Steeplechase d’Auteuil was then for a stake of 30,000 francs, at the time the most valuable offered in any country; but, as in racing on the flat, the stakes have enormously increased in value, and in 1901 the Paris Grand Steeplechase, as the chief event is now called, credited the winner with £6020, the hurdle race being worth rather more than half as much. In England there is scarcely any steeplechasing between March and November, except at hunt meetings, but in Paris cross-country sport is pursued almost all through the year, the chief races at Auteuil taking place in June, about the time of the Grand Prix, which is usually run for between the English Epsom and Ascot meetings. The Auteuil course is laid out in the shape of the figure 8, with varied fences, several of which really test a horse’s jumping capacity; and variety is further obtained by starting the fields in different places and traversing the course in different ways. St Ouen, a meeting within half an hour’s drive of the Louvre, is entirely devoted to steeplechasing; and jumping is also carried on at Vincennes, Colombes, Enghien, and elsewhere near Paris, as also at Nice in the winter, at Dieppe and other places in August. As a rule, the stakes run for, especially at Auteuil, are very much larger than in England. There are none of the clubs and special enclosures such as at Sandown, Kempton, Hurst, Lingfield, Gatwick, &c., though portions of the stand are set apart for privileged persons. A fee of 20 francs is charged for admission to the chief French race-courses, with half as much for a lady’s voucher, and the tickets give access everywhere but to the very few reserved portions. At Vincennes, St Cloud, and some other courses trotting races are also contested.
Other Countries.—Racing in Germany is mainly conducted under the authority of the Union Club of Berlin, the principal course being the Hoppegarten. Two-year-olds do not run until the 1st of June, except in Saxony, where they appear a month earlier. During the month of August there are several days’ racing at Baden-Baden, steeplechases as well as flat races being run. Some of the more valuable stakes are usually contested by a proportion of horses from France and other countries, a few being occasionally sent from England. For years past blood-stock has been imported from England. In Austria the two centres of racing are Vienna and Budapest, each of which has its Jockey Club. Racing in Belgium derives no little support from the contiguity of the country to France. The headquarters of the Belgium Jockey Club are in the Bois de la Cambre at Boisfort, and meetings are held at Ostend, Antwerp, Spa, Bruges and elsewhere. Steeplechases take place at Groenenval and on other Belgian courses, but are not of high class. Racing has not reached a great degree of excellence in Italy, though attempts have been made to improve competitors by the purchase of Melton, who won the Derby of 1885, and of other notable animals. Meetings take place at Florence, Padua, Bologna and other places, but the stakes are usually small. (A. E. T. W.)
HORSERADISH (Ger. Meerrettig; Fr. raifort= racine forte, cran de Bretagne; Swed. Peppar-rot, Russ. chern), known botanically as Cochlearia Armoracia, a perennial plant of the natural order Cruciferae, having a stout cylindrical rootstock from the crown of which spring large radical leaves on long stalks, 4 to 6 in. broad, and about a foot in length with a deeply crenate margin, and coarsely veined, the stem-leaves are short-stalked or sessile, elongated and tapering to their attachment, the lower ones often deeply toothed. The flowers, which appear in May and June, are 38 in. in width, in flat-topped panicles, with purplish sepals and white petals, the fruit is a small silica, which does not ripen in the climate of England. The horseradish is indigenous to eastern Europe. Into western Europe and Great Britain, where it is to be met with on waste ground, it was probably introduced. It was wild in various parts of England in Gerard’s time.
The root, the armoraciae radix of pharmacy, is 12 to 2 in. or more in diameter, and commonly 1 ft., sometimes 3 ft. in length, the upper part is enlarged into a crown, which is annulated with the scars of fallen leaves; and from the numerous irregular lateral branches are produced vertical stolons, and also adventitious buds, which latter render the plant very difficult of extirpation. From the root of Aconite (q.v.), which has occasionally been mistaken for it, horseradish root differs in being more or less cylindrical from a little below the crown, and in its pale yellowish (or brownish) white hue externally, acrid and penetrating odour when scraped or bruised, and
