39 



clean into England, and many thousand pounds were won 

 and lost on this contest. The race was well contested all 

 of the way over eight hurdles, until the last one, when one 

 of the contestants fell, dislocated a shoulder, and was 

 destroyed in consequence. This race gave rise, or inspired, 

 so it is said, steeplechasing and hurdle racing in England, 

 where ever since it has been conducted on the scale of mag- 

 nificence, to the delight of all patrons and the nobility of 

 Europe ; even King Edward often has a horse entered in 

 the race to give character and to add to its zest. 



About fifty-three years ago Mr. R. A. Alexander con- 

 ceived the idea and undertook to encourage hurdle racing 

 in America, and he, being a grand man, who did everything 

 in a grand way, commenced it it in the right way. At first 

 he employed Bill Jennings as both jockey and trainer, with 

 Brown Dick, or Edward Brown, and Harvey Welch as his 

 assistant riders or steeplechase and hurdle jockies, but, best 

 of all, from the very start, he sent good cattle into the field, 

 and the result was both a popular and grand success. This 

 is the class of men that make a success in all enterprises ; 

 they bring light out of chaos. 



Mr. Robert A. Alexander's career as a turfman was not 

 long lived, but oh, what a brilliant and beneficent one it 

 was, and what a valuable adjunct the breeding world and 

 turf lost when the grim reaper of death called him to doff 

 his hat. Just suppose he could have been spared to have 

 lived so he could have vied in the best interest of the Amer- 

 ican turf with such men as William C. Whitney, August 

 Belmont, James R. Keene and other noted leaders of the 

 American turf to-day. It only remains for a few of these 

 latter gentlemen to identify themselves with hurdle racing 

 to bring it up to that high pitch it so justly deserves as a 

 novel and grand sport. With the great number of thor- 

 oughbreds we are breeding in this country annually, we 

 should find no difficulty in soon producing the winner of 

 the Grand Metropolitan Handicap Steeplechase in England. 

 Join hands and hearts and let's see if we can't go over and 

 show John Bull the way to lay the rail and that we are the 

 only people who can stay on it after it is laid. All that is 

 needed to do so is to breed a few more Rosebens, learn 

 them to take the jumps, then keep them under cover prop- 



