s de
Boulogne; and, to bring to an end our long list of devotees of the
turf, we add the name of M. Ephrussi, who, amongst the numerous races
in which he has entered horses in 1879, has been victorious in not a
few--for instance, in the steeple-chase handicap at La Marche, called
the Prix de Clairefontaine, in L'Express at Fontainebleau, in the Prix
de Neuilly at the Bois de Boulogne, and in the handicap for the Prix
des Ecuries at Chantilly, as well as in a race for gentlemen riders
only at Maison-Lafitte. Besides these and others, he gained last August
the Jockey Club Prize (five thousand francs) at Chalons-sur-Saone, the
Prix de Louray at Deauville for the like amount, another of the same
figures at Vichy, and the six thousand francs of the Grand Prix du
Havre. Most of the gentlemen last named are the owners of a
comparatively small number of horses, which are, perhaps without
exception, entrusted to the care of the famous trainer Henry Jennings
of La Croix, St. Ouen, near Compiegne.

Henry Jennings is a character. His low, broad-brimmed beaver--which has
gained him the sobriquet of "Old Hat"--pulled well down over a
square-built head, the old-fashioned high cravat in which his neck is
buried to the ears, the big shoes ensconced in clumsy gaiters, give him
more the air of a Yorkshire gentleman-farmer of the old school than of
a man whose home since his earliest youth has been in France. He is one
of the most original figures in the motley scene as he goes his rounds
in the paddock, mysterious and knowing, very sparing of his words, and
responding only in monosyllables even to the questions of his patrons,
while he whispers in the ears of his jockeys the final instructions
which many an interested spectator would give something to hear.
Beginning his career in the service of the prince de Beauvan, from
which he passed first to that of the duc de Morny and afterward to that
of the comte de Lagrange, he is now a public trainer upon his own
account, with more than a hundred horses under his care. No one has
devoted more intelligent study to the education of the racer or shown a
more intuitive knowledge of his nature and of his needs. It was he who
first threw off the shackles of ancient custom by which a horse during
the period of training was kept in such an unnatural condition, by
means of drugs and sweatings, that at the end of his term of probation
he was a pitiful object to behold. The pictures and engravings of
tw