3-017-026 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Race for the Grand Prix de Paris, at Longchamps, on the 5th June, 1864. '...owing to the inferiority of the animals ultimately left on the card, the "International" was reduced to a match between England and France...It may be said without exaggeration that one hundred thousand "elegant" people were present at Longchamps; the arrival and departure of the brilliant equipages as they emerged from or drove towards the Bois de Boulogne was itself a most delightful sight...the general expectation was that Blair Athol would achieve an easy victory; and near the finish, when Challoner made his too-long deferred effort to win, the general cry was "Le vert! Le vert!" but, notwithstanding the betting and the almost foregone conclusion, the "green" was obliged to succumb to a fresher though not a better horse...It would, however, be unfair to depreciate the victory of Vermouth, who has proved himself...to be a first-rate animal, worthy of the honours he has carried off and of the very natural applause with which his triumph was greeted by the...French people. They were thus recompensed for their defeat of last year, which they bore, let it be here emphatically remarked, with "exemplary" politeness and good feeling'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.