The Life of a Great Sportsman 



more at home there, and the jockeys less so, than with the 

 smaller and shorter steeplechase courses, such as Sandown and 

 Kempton, etc., where not only is there less room, but jockey- 

 ship, pure and simple, has a better chance of asserting itself 

 than in the more open country. 



Never in my opinion was our Army so well represented in 

 the steeplechase field as at the present time, either in number 

 or in proficiency. Thirty or forty years ago you could count 

 its recognized champions on one hand, consisting as they did of 

 Colonels Knox and Harford, and Captains Smith, Coventry, 

 and Riddell ; whereas nowadays, at the Household Brigade 

 Meeting at Hawthorn-hill, it is nothing uncommon to see 

 twenty or thirty horses going to the post for a steeplechase. 



There were, of course, plenty of other good men in the 

 service besides the quintette I have mentioned, quite capable of 

 holding their own over a country in any company ; but, so far 

 as I remember, these were the only officers who made a regular 

 practice of riding in handicap steeplechases at all the principal 

 meetings. 



From my point of view I feel convinced that taking the 

 Army as a whole, never in its existence did it contain so many 

 really first-class horsemen as is the case at the present moment, 

 and nothing would please me better than to see the Grand 

 Military run over the Grand National course. This may seem 

 a bold suggestion to make, but it is one which I feel pretty sure 

 will find favour in the eyes of a large number of our military 

 riders, both past and present. 



It is now thirteen years since a soldier won the Grand 

 National, but, judging from the number of good riders who 

 compete in military races and the long prices some of them give 

 for their horses, it is pretty safe to predict that before long 

 their pluck will be rewarded by one of their number again 



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