HARD WEATHER INTERVENES.

He is a great individual beyond all question, but the point is that we shall not see him in England yet awhile. Such had been my view throughout, though there had been no more to go on than logical deduction, assuming at the outset that the owner of a horse with such a reputation would never subject him to a big task without being assured that he was in top-hole condition to undertake it. Doubts were bound to be more insistent at a time so early in the year even though until ten days ago the horse had been in steady work, and was quite ready to be subjected to fast and finishing work. The hard weather, however, has put an end to that. It has intervened between Epinard and Lincoln, but the day will come when he will most certainly demonstrate his right to championship status. Leigh tells me that he is assured beyond any shadow of doubt that the horse has in no sense lost a vestige of his brilliance.

At Maisons Laffitte to-day the ground was frozen bone hard. I imagine it is the same in the forest near by of Saint Germain, where Maisons Laffitte horses do their galloping. “I’ve not known such severe weather,” said Leigh, “in France for the last twenty-two years. It has settled all my hopes of taking the horse to England to win the Lincolnshire.” M. Wertheimer was most courteous and, as usual, interesting about a horse for which he naturally has the deepest affection. He has recognised how both the French and British public in a way regard Epinard as their property, and the fact has prompted him to lose no time in arriving at a decision to scratch the horse as soon as it was realised that he could not be made fit enough to take his big part at Lincoln. Epinard has a big programme in front of him. He will certainly run in France. “I feel that is due to our people,” observed M. Wertheimer, “because of their interest in him.” “Then,” he went on, “I am anxious that he shall race in England before going to America, which, all going well, he is sure to do soon after Ascot.”