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PARIS RACING AT AN END Obstacle Sport at Enghien Closes Season at French Capital Gossip of the Sales. Special Correspondence. PARIS, France, December 11. Auteuil is closing its gates for the season this afternoon. With a days racing more at Enghien the Paris racing for 1D22 will be a thing of the past. Looking back I can hardly say that there has been a first-class three-year-old out. I mean a three-year-old crack to point at as a representative of the year. The two-year-olds to my mind are the best we have seen out for some length of time, and promise some interesting sport next year in the big events. Sardanapale with his get has stood out as the winning sire and had Zariba been favored with the luck of racing he would have stood still further ahead in the list-Certainly Winkfield and Sam Bush seem to know exactly what is needed in the preparation and training of this breed of horses. The latter told me one day that he was convinced they did not need much, and the fresher they were the better they delivered the goods. From what some other trainers tell me they are not easy horses, to train, as they can fool one. A fine young jumper has appeared on the scene in Despot, sold a few weeks ago out of the Manuicheff stable for the reported price of about 0,000. Sam Bush schooled him and rode him, and was much surprised when the Russian owner disposed of him to Heliopoulos, one of the big bettors at the races these days. His two races were indeed impressive. DECAZES RACING PLANS. The Decazes lot will not be represented at Marseilles or Cannes this coming year, but will be at Nice and Pau. At the latter place in the Pyrenees a good meeting is promised. Hercs XII. will be a starter if all goes well in the Grand Prixe there. The weather is still open and, while we have been having considerable fog, the days are mild, and the yearlings are going along nicely at Chantilly and Maisons-Lafitte. Of course as two-year-old racing does not begin until the end of June trainers go along rather slowly here in comparison with yearling gallops at home. The Newmarket sales are over and, while many of the French breeders were represented, exchange conditions rendered buying almost out of the question. However, Victor Duret was in the buying mood with a purchase of a mare in foal for 10,000, which is something when computed into francs. In the last few days reports are that some cheap mares have been knocked down to a Leigh. I do not know whether it was "Gene" ; but a lot were bought with all sorts of pedigrees in foal to various stal- lions. They were at prices that led one to believe the proposition of a foal was being considered more than the mare. Phil Chinn was a foal buyer. Poland was a purchaser ; and it is reported that the government was behind the bidding. With the exchange of that country it would take-a government to be a buyer. Willie Head will not be signed again by the Due Decazes for next year, the con- tract terminating the end of this month.
