The Life of a Great Sportsman 





keener interest in all outdoor sport than themselves, regarding 

 it, indeed, as essential to their very existence. On what sort of 

 footing, I wonder, would fox-hunting be if this were not so ? 

 11 Gentlemen : Our friends the farmers ! " 



STEEPLECHASING 



TO-DAY AND YESTERDAY 



By JOHN MAUNSELL RICHARDSON 



(Reproduced by permission of the proprietors of "The Daily Telegraph") 



A flatter or more unsatisfactory steeplechase season than 

 that now rapidly drawing to a conclusion has probably never 

 been known since first the sport became a recognized institu- 

 tion. To such an extent, indeed, has steeplechasing deteriorated 

 that were it not that the Grand National still retains its popu- 

 larity, the public would soon cease to take any further interest 

 in the game. 



Whenever the fences are trimmed up a bit nowadays, so 

 that they cannot be brushed through, down come all the horses, 

 and the executive are roundly abused by the jockeys for 

 endangering their lives ; the fact being that nearly all of them 

 using the forward seat — the professionals, that is — they come 

 shooting over their horses' heads on the very slightest 

 provocation. 



In these cases, when the trainers are taken to task for not 

 schooling their charges properly, they retaliate by saying, " Ours 

 have no pretensions to being Grand National horses, and are 

 really not capable of doing better. If they were we should not 

 be running them for such insignificant stakes as those to be 

 met with at the various meetings about London." When, in 

 addition, one hears, as I did the other day, that a well-known 



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