10
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN. PORTLAND, OCTOBER 13, 1907.
THE VANDERBILT FARM IN THE NEIGHBORHOOP Wftw,
OF PABJS THE FINEST TRAINING PLACE IN THE WORLD Mi
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BT DEXTER MARSHALL.
POISSY-ON-aEUNE. Sept. 37. (Special
Correspondence of the Sunday Ore
gonian.) "M'sleu Vanderbllt. 'e 'ave
been 'ere a good many years," said the
young English-speaking Folssy cabman,
who drove me out to St. iXPUls-de-Poisxy.
William K. Vanderbllfs training head
quarter near the town of Poissy, some 35
miles, a little to the north of west- of
Paris. "I remember vare well when 'e
come. I was small boy then. Every year
since then 'e have been 'ere sometimes;
'e used to come from Paris In the train,
but now 'e come toot, toot. In ees motor
car.
" 'E does not stay much about the
town,, no; ' stay at "ees place an' keep
busy about 'eej 'orses. But everybody in
Poissy an' in this neighborhood think 'e
is vare fine man; "e give much work to
he men of Poissy an' other places roun'
'ere. Some years ago 'e 'ave employ 'un
dred, two 'undred men. 'E is w'at you
call it? hall right? Ees lat eetT"
The Vanderbllt "farm." as it is some
times termed by the Anglo-American col
onists in Paris, Is anything but a farm
In the ordinary sense, since no appreci
able part of the ground within its in
closure is devoted to cultivation. But it
Is big enough for a very respectable farm
either in France or the United States, as
It covers not far from 250 acres, while Its
soli is fertile enough to raise any of the
crops which are produced on the smiling,
hill-circled plain around it.
Instead of being planted to potatoes, or
own to wheat or oats, nearly all the
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area of St. Louis de Poissy Is given over
to horses, which Its owner keeps in order
to carry on his racing career in France,
and neither money nor pains have been
pared In the effort to make the estab
lishment a model one. Frenchmen and
Englishmen, as well as Americana, agree
that the attempt has been quite success
ful. The entire "farm" Is securely en
closed after the manner of the French,
partly by a high wall and partly by a
till hedge 10 or IS feet wide that Is
reinforced by a ' wire fence. Either
hedge or fence would be difficult to
pass; combined, they are practically
Impregnable. Tet, apparently, the lord
of the domain does not rely upon them
wholly to keep Intruders out, for at
varloiM points he has displayed con
spicuously the announcement:
"let II y a des pleges a loups," which,
freely translated, means:
"Look out for the wolf traps."
So far as I know, no one ever has
Investigated for the purpose of learn
ing whether there are any traps in the
hedge or not. There are no similar
warnings on the wall. It is a piece of
masonry as only Frenchmen build
about nine feet high, of rough-finished
buff stone, capped with brilliantly red
tiles. It Is so new and It reflects the
light so brightly when the sun is shin
ing that you can see It plainly from
tn hills miles away In every direction.
The newness and the splc-and-span-ness
of the entire establishment are
among the most distinguished char
acteristics of St- Louls-de-Polesy. It
Is in a region not altogether devoid of
other new buildings, to be sure, but
where most structures are gray and
black with age. At Poissy Is the sec
ond oldest church now standing In all
France, say the people there. It was
built In the twelfth century, and al
though portions of it seem to have
been restored, it looks quite as old as
It Is supposed to be.
The Vanderbllt training farm is reached
by a sandy cart track, which branches
from the fine main road leading from
Folksy to Meulan, both of which are on
the River Seine. There are two entrances.
Just inside the ornamental main entrance
stands the new chateau the cabman
tailed it a "castle"' which Mr. Vanderbllt
has had built for a residence when he
chooses to occupy it, but which la not
quite ready to live in.
While the owner of the place was In
France In August, but attending the races
at Deauvllle, Trouvllle and other racing
centers. Mrs. Vanderbllt waa living In a
pretty little red-roofed whlte-stone cot
tage Just outside the yellow walls.
"Finest Training Place In France."
There are many who say that the train
ing grounds at St, Louls-de-Poisey are
the finest In France. As I haven't seen
them all I cannot say whether this Is true
or not, but the establishment oertalnly
Is well planned and well kept up.
The entire lncloeure Is practically level,
and the turfed course, with two long
stretches, has a circuit of a mile and a
quarter. The sand course. Just inside the
other. Is perhaps a hundred yards short
er. One of the stretches of the turf
course is quite five furlongs In length,
which gives a chance for long straight
away dash.
The turf on the outside course Is kept
In as good condition as the turf should be
on the putting greens of a first-class golf
course, although a bit longer. As turf
never or rarely maintains Itself In France
the course has to be watered plentifully
every day, water for that purpose being
pumped from the Seine into a water tower
upon ita banks, about half a mile from
the western boundary of the farm. With
in the inclosure and near Its eastern wall
Is another smaller water tower which Is
connected with the first by underground
pipes.
All the racing in France, as In England,
Is upon the turf. Consequently the more
severe exercising of the horses at St.
Louls-de-Polssy is done upon the turf
course, the Inner, shorter, sand course
being reserved for the slower gallops. In
side the track there are 22 large paddocks.
In which all the horses on the place can
be turned out at once If It Is so desired.
There are stalls for 64 horses, bnsldes
six or seven "hacks." The stalls, which
are very roomy ar.d well ventilated, are
located in stone stables with thick walls
that Insure coolness In the hottest weath
er ever known In the Talley of the Seine.
The stalls for the yearlings, of which
there are 35, are In what Is known as the
riding school. It Is nearly or quite $00
feet long and Its inclosed and roofed-over
track for the exercising fit the yearlings.
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which surrounds the stalls. Is about a rod
wide. Five times round this track make
a mile, and Us short turns are sharply
raised on the outside.
There Is nothing in the world, appar
ently, that William K. Vanderbllt likes
better than to watch his horses at work
under the direction of his trainer, Will
iam Duke. For some years' Duke was
employed by Sir John Thursby In Eng
land, where he helped Introduce Amer
ican training methods, as Lester Kelff
and Tod Sloane introduced American rid
ing. Duke succeeded Hughes as trainer
at St. LouIs-de-Polssy about five years
ago. The stand from which the trainer
and the owner watch the horses at St.
Louis-de-Polssy rises one story above the
riding school and commands an unob
structed view of both tracks, the sand
and the turf. .
Bach track has posts at eisbth-mlle in
tervalsred for the turf and white for the
sand which serve the trainer In deter
mining the speed at which the horses are
going, and he calls for more or less speed
as they are moving too slowly or too fast
to suit, by means of signals worked from
the stand. The exercising, of course. Is
according to the most approved American
'"rh'ls'ts now accepted as desirable by
practically all French racing men, most
of whom have adopted It in full or In
part, but at first they looked upon it
with caution, not to eay alarm. Even
so late as five years ago. there was
much question as to its value, as the
following paragraphs, turned into Eng
lish "as she Ib wrote" by one of the
men who do casual translation for
American sojourners here, will show.
The article from -ilch they are taken,
was contributed by Jean Romaln to Le
Sport UnlversalleIllustre for July- 20,
1902. It will be noticed that M. Ro
malne found a few things to surprise
him at St. Louls-de-Polssy besides the
training.
"At the hour of our arrival," he says,
"the work of the old horses has just
been finished. We have before- us the
stable of the t o'clock horses. The
men are dressed in blouses held to
xetbar by belts, their heads covered
with very broad straw hats of the en
tire American form while attending to
their occupations, giving us at the first
step the impression that here we are
not at Chantilly.
"The Yankee lad, or subordinate of
the Yankee trainer, has quite a differ
ent bearing from that of the English
lad. He is nbt striving to appear as a
gentleman, and the entirely sportive
trappings and accouterments, caps,
serge Jackets, breeches and legglns of
porkskins, were not found by us to be
worn at St. Louis-de-Polsey.
"Contrary to the English, the Amer
icans keep their horses as much as
possible In the open air and do not
store them all day. In dark and close
stalls. At a distance we see them drawn
up In battle array like a line of cav
alry. One does not give in. We take
advantage of this incident to inform
ourselves.
"The purpose of the dally exercise is
not only to keep the horses supple, but
also to make their character more
steady and to get them Into the habit
of remaining In contact with their
neighbors while they are under the or
ders of the starters. When at last all
have been calmed down, order Is given
to break the line loose, and, to our
surprise, the entire troop starts at a
small, slow gallop. In one of the most
picturesque, but also one of the most
practical mix-ups. In the English
stables the colts are seen in Indian
file at from 76 to 150 feet one from the
other. Evidently such a method is In
spired by fear of accidents, but it of
fers the inconvenience of not prepar
ing the horses for the brutal contact
with others In the race.
"Here It is estimated that the train
ing should tend to educate the horse
with a view to the hippodrome. In
consequence one tries to give the horse
during the exercise Itself a lesson
which shall be profitable for its train
ing. " It Is a fact that the young colts go
in playful way, but very calm, well
placed and nnder the full control of
their riders, without the least diaordu
appearing In their close line. This
training exercise and the entire light
work are done on the sand. The rapid
gallops are accomplished on the grass."
M. Romaine describes the training
exercise at some length, laying partic
ular stress upon the fact that the
horses are left outside as long as pos
sible after the work Is done. "Before
their return to the stalls," he says,
"they are walked a long time, led by
hand under sieve-like coverings which
are spread over the entire horse, per
mitting the free access of air to the
body and protecting It from flies. From
time to time the animal, is given a
mouthful of water.
"I have been told that this dosing of
the horse with the beverage Is one of
the tricks proving the superiority of
the trainers. I admit my incapacity to
discuss this question. The exercise,
the walk led by hand, the grooming,
take at least three" hours by the
clock," he continues,' with some won
der, "during which time the horses re
main in the open. If this be not suf
ficient they are taken out again in the
afternoon."' w
Summing up with regard to American
methods of training, M. Romaine says
that, saving the rule to keep the horses
in the open as much as possible, the
principle seems to be to treat each ani
mal according to his temperament and
to vary the method as occasion requires
"so many different horses, so many
different ways of doing" is the way he
puts it. This Is true of the Vanderbllt
stables today, under Duke, as it was five
years ago under Hughes. But today the
under trainer is an Englishman named
Piatt and be wears the "leggings of
porkskin" and otherwise attires himself
as men of his nationality and calling
generally do. He is a highly competent
man, however. He came here with Duke
the head trainer, and since their arrival,
nearly all the buildings have been re
placed by new ones: new waterworks
and electric light plant have been put
In, and the surface of the entire Inclos
ure, which formerly was undulating, so
that the tracks were not without vrodas.
It Is In doing all this work that the
"one. hundred, sometimes two hundred"
men of Poissy, as stated by my cab
driver, have been employed by the estab
lishment to the gratitude and largely to
the support of all Poissy and its en
virons. The building of the new "castle"
has employed many local workmen, also.
These men and the local tradesmen do
most of their dealing with William K.'s
secretary, Rutgers Leroy, the proprietor
himself rarely coming in contact with
them.
In the Summer when the races are on
and the horses' are away Bt. Louls-de-Polssy
boasts few employes, but at o'ther
times there are about 30 stable boys, be
sides other regular employes, such as
the gardener, the concierge and their un
derlings, and so on. The stable boys in
clude a few French lads from the neigh
borhood, but there are seevral English
lads, while here and there among them
may be seen a "broad straw hat, entire
ly American." Bellhouse. the regular
Vanderbllt Jockey, succeeded Ransch. the
American. last Spring, and is English.
My visit to St. Louls-de-Polssy was
made In midsummer, and. In consequence
the place was almost deserted by both
men and horses. AH the racing animals
were at the tracks; the surplus stock
had all been sold or sent to the big Van
derbllt breeding farm at Vlllebon; both
Duke, the head trainer, and Vanderbllt
were absent and a sabbath calm cov
ered the place, both Inside and outside
the yellow walls. Only Piatt was In at
tendance. His house and Duke's, white-walled
and red-roofed, like nearly all the St.
Louis-de-Polssy buildings, stands near
a gate that is nearly a third of a
mile further from the public high
way than the entrance of state open
ing on the new chateau and its gar-
Every one of these villages has Its queer
traditions, dating back to the middle ages,
and perhaps beyond. At Poissy, to the
south, lived Messionler, one of the greater
French painters, during the larger part of
tho nineteenth century. His statue, sur
rounded by a square of stocky, thickly
leaved trees, closely clipped an auda
cious figure In bronse stands in front of
the ancient church of which the town
Is so proud.
St. IiOuis-De-Polssy .in the Past.
St. Louis-de-Polssy, especially since its
owner has built a "castle" within Its
walls, is now In the zenith of Its glory,
and this is recognized by the picture
postal card publishers, who have Issued
a series illustrating te Improvements.
But It has a history dating back some
years before Vanderbllt got possession
of It. It was once a public racing course,
and for some time it vied in popularity
with other courses in the neighbor
hood of the French capital. But at
the "best it no mora than held its own
and later, partially because it was so
far from the Poissy Railroad station,
its popularity dwindled, its receipts
grew less and less yearly, its prizes
were reduced, and finally it was closed.
Then Jacques Hennessy took it and
trained his horses there. After him
Cammille Blanc, the famous French
racing man, purchase- it, in partner
ship with M. Mecle: they kept it a
short time only, and sold it to the
present ' owner.
It was a much smaller place then
than now, .having been added to bit by
bit. almost every year, and the fact
that only a part of the present 250
acres is protected by the famous buff
stone wall may mean that "Willie K."
Intends to add still more acres to his
domain. f
The only training quarters in France
that have cost mora money than Van
debilt's are those of Edmond Blanc,
brother of Cammille, and manager of
tne Casino at Monte Carlo. His racing
headquarters is at St. Cloud, adjoin
ing the racetrack there, which was
built by him originally to serve as a
training track only. It has been one
of the most important racetracks In the
French system for some time now.
however, and Edmond Blanc Is one of
the heaviest holders of race track stock
in the country today.
Those who should know say that
while Vanderbllt has spent a million
dollars upon his track near Poissy,
Blanc has spent twice that much at
St. Cloud. Including the public stands
cost much more
track, and th
the track there has
than the Vanderbllt
same may be said of the training quar
ters themselves. Much costly art tils
work is to be found in some of the
stalls and other parts of the big stables
at St. Cloud, but nothing so extrav
gant and really useless Is to be found
at St. Louis-de-Polssy.
Edmond Blanc makes his establish
ment very profitable, however, every
year; Vanderbllt made money out of
French racing for the first time In
1906, but has made little or nothing
this year. To tell the truth "Willie K"
has not done so well this year as last;
neither has Jay Ransch, the American
Jockey, who left him last Autumn after
"a bit of an argument," thus closing
an engagement of three years. Van
derbllt'! present Jockey, Bellhouse, the
English lad, who rides the horses of
other owners when not needed by Van
derbllt, has done very well, however,
being second on the list of winning
Jockeys, which bears out the state
ment that Vanderbllfs horses were noi
up to the standard this season.
His 3-year-olds all failed to make good.
Second Sight, which ran second to Sans
Souci II.. in the Grand Prix de Paris, has
not done anything worth mentioning
since; Kadijah, who was in the second
string, but still gave promise, also has
failed to count for much. Schuyler, the
best Vanderbilt 2-year-old, and North
east, another of his 2-year-olds, appear to
be coming on very well, however, and
there Is reason to believe that the multi
millionaire owner may fare better in 1908
than he has fared in 1907. His Malntenon
and Prestige, which were the talk of all
racing France last year by reason of the
victories they won under Ransch's guid
ance, are out of racing completely .. for
the present.
It makes little financial difference, how
ever, either to Vanderbllt or Blano
whether they make money on the tracks
or not. Blanc's pockets are kept full to
repletion, quite Independent of his win
nings or losses as a racing man, by the
constant stream of money from the utter
most parts of the earth that flows to him
by way of the great gambling resort,
where, as the French say:
"Nolr gagne quelquefols Rouge gagne
quelquefols, mals Blanc gagne tou
Jours" which means that Blanc wins
sometimes, red sometimes, but whits
(Blanc) wins all the time.
The racecourse at Sheepshead Bay,
largely owned by Vanderbllt and his New
York Central trains unless the Inter
state Commerce Commission shall get af
ter them too hard "win all the time,"
and will keep his pockets full, no matter
what happens in France, so that he need
not care the snap of. his finger whether
his horses win on the French turf or
not. At the most his racing losses can
not possibly be big enough to embarrass
him financially, since' like Keene, Harry
Payne Whitney and August Belmont, "at
home,'' he never bets to any extent
worth mentioning. But It is said that
he does care a lot that he Is pretty sore
over the failure of his stable to cut
much ice this year.
It should be understood, however, that
Vanderbilt stands very high as a racing
man In France, notwithstanding this
rather poor luck this season. There was
a time, before his horses began to win,
when Frenchmen refused to take him
any more seriously than they take most
Americans, whether rich or otherwise,
but now "ft is different." His costly
breeding farm has not turned out any
great horses as yet, but his Prestige
carries an unbeaten certificate, despite
his breakdown, and had beaten the best
French horses before being withdrawn
because of lameness.
In France, as in America, "Willie
K." has the name of getting more real
fun out of racing than any other rich
man allvo, and of taking defeat with
the same smile with which he welcomes
victory. It Isn't supposed that he
knows as much about horses as the
men he hires, and It is true that he is
vastly better at railroading which he
hates than at horsemanship, which he '
admires so much. But he knows how
to select good horsemen as well as ex
pert railroad men. and, perhaps, one
day he may realize his ambition to
stand at the head of the French turf,
.He Is the only American, , probably,
who could be a member of the French
Jockey Club if he chose, which he
doesn't.