CHAPTER XI 



THE TEDIGREE AND COLOUR OF GRAND 

 NATIONAL WINNERS 



FROM Lottery to Troytown the winninfr^ 

 horses number seventy-five ; of these half- 

 a-dozen were twice successful, thus making 

 in all eighty-one races. A brown (Lottery) was 

 the hero in 1839. His jumping capabilities are 

 historic, and need no praise from my pen. In the 

 pictures of the first National he is depicted going 

 like great guns on the flat and making very light 

 even of the stone wall which in those days was 

 built in front of the stands. 



Whilst writing of Lottery's jumping qualities, I 

 must mention the longest recorded jump at Aintree 

 — that of 23 feet — which some maintain was over 

 the wall ; reference to the file of Bell's Life, how- 

 ever, makes it clear that the leap took place at one 

 of the two hurdles then in vogue after landintr on 

 the course a second time. 



Following Lottery were eleven browns, if I include 

 Shannon Lass, a doubtful brown or bay. The 

 winning bays total forty-three, of which, so far as I 

 can discover, Charity was the first (1841). I am 



unable to trace the colour of Jerry, who won the 



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