Vicomte (Viscount) Artus Talon was the first – and remains the only – Frenchman to ride the winner of the Grand Military Gold Cup.
He served with the Chasseurs d’Afrique and made his debut in the saddle as a non-commissioned officer of the French Army during the Crimean War at the Sebastapol Spring Meeting of 1856, winning the principal race, a two-mile chase, easily by three lengths on his own horse Paddy Boy, carrying 12st 7lb.
With the Crimean War having cemented the entente cordiale between Britain and France, the Grand Military Steeplechases Committee advised the stewards of the French Jockey Club that officers in the French Army on full pay would be allowed to run and ride their horses in three races at the Grand Military Meeting.
The first and only French officer who responded to this invitation was Viscount Artus Talon, who on Friday, March 19, 1858, when the Grand Military Meeting was held at Brixworth, near Northampton, in conjunction with the Pytchley Hunt Steeplechases, not only enteted his horse Young Magnet for the Grand Military Gold Cup, but won it, starting at 4-1 and beating seven rivals. They only scraped home by a neck and were perhaps lucky to do so, as the runner-up, Horniblow, had stumbled badly at the last fence and almost come down. The following day, Viscount Talon and Young Magnet finished second (after remounting) to Horniblow in the three-mile Welter Stakes, beaten 12 lengths.
He rode Young Magnet twice at the following year’s Grand Military Meeting, held that year at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham. They won the Welter Stakes on the first day, humping 14st 7lb to victory, but then had to survive two objections by the clerk of the scales, both of which were overruled. The following day, burdened with a 14lb penalty at 13st, they finished third in the Grand Military Gold Cup, six lengths behind the winner.
Riding another of his horses, Laudanum, Viscount Talon was an unlucky third in the 1861 renewal, having remounted after falling at the last fence when in the lead. He then rode Laudanim in the 1861 National Hunt Chase, which took place at Cheltenham, finishing second to The Freshman, the mount of George Ede, riding under the assumed name of ‘Mr Edwards’.
Later that year, in September, Viscount Talon rode Laudanum to win the Grand Steeple Chase Handicap, over three miles three furlongs, at Spa, in Belgium. Returning to Belgium with Laudanum in September 1863, he won the Consolation Plate, a mile and a half flat race at Waregem, after being unplaced in the big steeplechase earlier in the afternoon. Later that month they won a two-mile chase at Spa by a short-head having refused rwice en route.
Viscount Artus Talon became French Champion Amateur Rider in 1866.
Described as “a gentleman accustomed to the luxuries of a Parisian man of fashion,” he was nonetheless delighted to be mistaken for an Englishman. On one occasion, while travelling to Paris for the Grand Steeple Chase de Paris, he was mistaken for an English trainer. Thereafter, he always told the story with glee, and was highly flattered and pleased at the mistake made.
A staunch friend of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, he indulged in speaking the English language to the best of hs ability. Alluding to his passion for English society, Lotd Charles Beresford once said to him: “Dash it all, Talon, if you want to be so damned English,why don’t you call yourself Lord Heel!” – ‘Talon’ being French for ‘heel’.
Sadly, he died young - aged just 38 - from stomach cancer at Lyons on Sunday July 19, 1868.