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GOSSIP OF FRENCH RACING Bain, Cold Winds and Generally-Bad Weather Interfere with Sport Flechois Failure. SPECIAL, CORRESPONDENCE. PARIS, France, July 23. We have had most unseasonable weather until three days ego. One can hardly imagine overcoats ;tnd , furs being seen at the races in June and July; but with rain, cold winds and over- cast days they were comfortable. The National Fete day. July 14, brought out a substantial crowd at St. Cloud for the Prix des JIarechaux of 5,000 at a mile, seven and a half furlongs. Flechois was the crack of the field, but he was not the same horse we had seen in the earlier part if the Paris racing season. The Edouard do Rothschild entry, Happy ; Go Lucky McC.ee and Vatel ONeilH, started a firm favoritj and justified all the confidence reposed in it, as the former always looked the winner and cantered home two lengths ahead of his field. Grazing was second and ran a good race, beating Halle-bardier. third, and Flechois fourth. Who says the Sweepers, if trained for distance, cant.ot stay? The two-year-old racing has been interesting. Up to the present Duke seems to be most in the center of the stage with the Aga Khans lot. Niclas, a bay brown Sun-dridge. is unbeaten. He went to ostend and won their big ,000 event two weeks ago. OTIIKIt GOOD AG A KHAX YOUNGSTERS. Another fine colt in the Indian Princes barn is St. llliers, by Faucher. In the filly division Duke has started a sister to Sour-bier, returned a winner on her only outing, and Kipton Belle, by Kwang-Su, leased from young Pierre Corbiere. This is a real cracking filly. I alone know how nearly she should be in the States now in Joyners string instead of at Maisons-Laff itte ; but as Kipling says "that is another story." George Widener looked a long time at her that evening in June, 1921, when he was at Nonant le Pin. Madame Blanc showed another speedy Verwood colt the other day at St. Cloud in Mackenzie, reported to be her best. At any rate he won in a common romp, as Pavilion did for her on his first time out. The Ver-woods are certainly fast as two-year-olds ; but they do not seem to stick as they approach the three-year-old stage. Jerry Welsh besides his good filly. Natures Smile, came to the races the other day with an Isard II. colt called Lizard. He was bumped to his knees almost at the start, but ONeill pulled him together. At the end of the I,e Tremblay stand he had joined the leaders and won handily at the finish. It was the longest the youngsters had been asked to go up to that time, five-eighths, and finishing up the Le Tremblay hill means another sixteenth experts say, so this J. E. Widener colt looked like a stayer. His dam, Lisette IX., is interesting to Americans, being of the Fairy Gold family. HITCHCOCK JUVENILES SnOW WELL. Frank Pratt seems to have some fine two-year-olds running in the F. R. Hitchcock yellow and green. He showed a good Son-in-Lavv colt yesterday at Le Tremblay. Crossed at the start and pocketed on the run in, Bellhouse had to pull out and come around. It looked as if he would never be up ; but he ran a close second after seeming absolutely hopeless. This same stable has also shown a young Sandy Hook colt, a winner first time out; but more like a three-year-old than a colt for his first season. Rire aux Larmes and Sweeper II. ought to be off "The Banks" today, so Dr. McCully is probably brushing up his French to look over their papers, and get them off to Ken-tucky. The former, one of the best sons of Rabelais at the stud, and a good race horse also, with his Le Sancy outcross, will surely do well on the mares he is mated with in Km-tucky. He is a good-looking stallion, and a fine dispositioned one as well. It was a game purchase to make and send to the States ; but F. R. Hitchcock has been much in the eye of the racing public heref or the past two weeks, with his purchase of the Haras du Gazon also. REGRET LOSS OF SAVE E PER II. Sweeper II. is now much regretted as soon as he is away from France. I am sure he will join and most probably head the Broomstick family in America when his produce start in at the races. Over here the only French breeders who really seemed to know his merits were the Due Decazes, Marcel Boussac, and X. Balli. With the fine Widener mares at Elmendorf I believe he will make things hum. Outside of the two-year-old racing the days at the various courses have not been interesting. I have been in the Normandy breeding country for the past ten days. This corresponds to your Blue Grass district. I saw some good yearlings in my journeying. They will all be at the Deauville sales next month. It would not surprise me next season to see Durbars get prominent. In 1920 some of the best brood mares visited him, and his yearlings are promising this season in the various haras visited. I saw a beautiful filly by him, half-sister to Enfilade. Murphy does not seem to be very strong in his two-year-olds. He has won some selling races; but the general gossip when the season began was that neither A. K. Ma-comber nor himself rated the young division in the Poissy barn very promising, so they Are probably not disappointed. Taris is thinning out. The usual cure season has started in. Due Decazes is at Vittel, Mrs. Duryea at Marienbad, the Aga Khan at Aix le Bains, J. E. Widener sailed on the Majestic for Saratoga and F. R. Hitchcock also ; and to try some salmon fishing in the wilds of Canada for his health. Deauville, however, remains to us ; but if the weather is unseasonable you all know what an unpleasant place it can be; not as the old flat iron sign use to flash out to us, "swept by ocean breezes" ; but in reality "swept by channel gales."
