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THE CHIEF WINNERS IN FRANCE. M. Caillault Heads the List for This Year and Mr. Vanderbilt Is Fourth. Flat racing in France came to a close at St. Cloud October 15, and in a partial summary of results London Sportsmans Paris correspondent says: "The general verdict is the same witli regard to the two-year-olds as in England, that the fillies are superior to the colts. Sauge Pourpree and Valda Iiave certainly shown the best form, and they are run fairly close by Halima and Princess Margaret. There lias been a considerable amount of in-an-out running among the colts, and I am Inclined to think that Conquistador, like Retz, will improve with age, and that, like many other horses showing lie same strains of blood, his three-year-old career will prove the accurate judgment of those who, after having looked him over with a critical eye, consider him as the best candidate for classic honours next year among the males. Behind him come Talo Birihil, Schuyler, Northeast, Monitor over a moderate distance Lamaneur, Bab Azoum, and a goodly number of colts, so that with all the glorious uncertainties witli which a wintering is fraught, opinions as to the respective merits of the sexes must be suspended until the Guineas are at hand. "The Jockey has been the first to publish the, statistics of the past flat racing season. Mr. Caillault stands at the head of the list of winners, with 25,000 odd, while his first Derby winner, Perth, in 1S00, occupies the place of honor among sires with 12,050. M. Caillault is followed by M. Lieux, who owns no breeding stable, and has enfranchised himself from the slavery of studying pedigrees for the due mating of sires and dams. He is a keen judge, and picks out his equine reprc-senatives from selling races after they have been put through the mill and when they are sent cherry ripe to -the post. He runs them judiciously, and no one can accuse him of that fault, common to many owners who delay making hay while the sun shines and keep their horses in the stable when they are ready to run. M. Lieux lias won a trifle over 10,SOO, and has still a good stable, including cross-country performers, whose winnings are not included in the sum mentioned. Baron Edouard de Rothschilds winnings are put down at 00,200, an excellent result for all the care James Watson has bestowed on his horses, and I am pleased to see that the second place on the list of winning sires is occupied by Le Roi Soleil, which was the first Grand Prix winner to carry the colors of the owner of the Meautry Stud. M. E. Veil-Picard maintains even a more honorable position than that which fell to him through the endeavors of George Cunningham, Jr., last year. M. Maurice Ephrussi, who has reduced his racing stable to the narrowest limits, has, however, reaped the benefit o his enterprise in sending horses to England to give them a foretaste of what will be expected of them at home. He has won 1907.sh7,025, or less than Is credited to the sire he bred, War Dance. Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, who stood at the top of the list of winning owners at the end of last year, when Prestige and Maintenou proved such good winners for him, only comes fourth this year, just in front of M. de Monbel, whose interests in the hands of Harry Webb have not suffered, since lie precedes M. Edmond Blanc, who has a lot of leeway to make up. Flying Fox has also lost hte commanding position he held in the list of winning sires. His name is topped by that of Perth, Le Roi Soleil, Son OMine, and War Dance, while treading close on his heels are Simonian, Le Sagittaire, St. Damien, Lutin, and Doricles. The old stable of Baron de Schickler, now racing in the name of his son-in-law, Count II. de Pourtales, has been even more scurvily treated by fortune than that of his former rival for championship honors, the owner of the Jardy Stud. The produce of the Mar-tinvast Stud have simply credited W. Webbs stable with a meagre ,750. The study of the list of winning owners as a comparison between those who take pleasure in sport for the honor of their stable colors and hesitate at no expense where blood is concerned, and M. Lieux, who is studless, relying on Ills own judgment, is a proof positive of the dictum of Admiral Rous, who compared horses to greyhounds and said that, breed them as you liked, three in a thousand was a good average."
