Racing Career 



straight six furlongs as now, consequently the horses had to 

 come round Tattenham Corner soon after the start. 



As an example of the wonderful condition he always kept 

 himself in, Mr. Richardson, early in the same afternoon on 

 which he won the Grand National for Captain Machell on 

 Disturbance, rode and won a seven-furlong race on the flat, 

 on Lincoln, a feat described to me by one of the most celebrated 

 amateur horsemen of his day as the finest exhibition of stamina 

 and confidence he had ever witnessed or was ever likely to 

 again, involving as it did a strain on the constitution that not 

 one jockey out of a hundred, either amateur or professional, 

 would have had the hardihood to risk. 



On the contrary, one has only to take up a sporting paper a 

 week before the Grand National to read that such and such a 

 jockey — professional most likely — engaged to ride a prominent 

 candidate in the race, undesirous of taking any risks in the 

 interim, will not appear again in the saddle until he fulfils his 

 engagement at Aintree. 



Mr. Richardson's immunity from accidents in the field was 

 wonderful, the only falls he received of any importance during 

 his steeplechasing career being got when schooling the chasers 

 at home sometimes. He attributed this in no small measure to 

 two causes — one in never riding into the heels of horses in 

 front of him during a race ; and also should the horse he was 

 riding come down on his knees, he often kept on his back 

 instead of cutting a voluntary over his head. The most 

 modest of men, when the subject was under discussion once, 

 he added, " I suppose, as Sir John Astley remarked in his book, 

 'hands' had something to do with it, but it seems rather 

 conceited to say so." 



And there is not much doubt that this was the true explana- 

 tion, both the hands and feet of the " Cat " being just about as 



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