NOTE BY THE EDITOR. 



The conditions under which this book is written make it im- 

 possible for the authors to include the first gentleman-rider of 

 the day, Mr. Arthur Coventry, whose name appears on the title- 

 page. To omit mention of hira would be to leave out a pro- 

 minent figure on contemporary racecourses. In steeple-chases, 

 hurdle-races, and on the flat, Mr. Arthur Coventry has alike dis- 

 tinguished himself, proving a worthy successor of his brother, 

 who carried off the Grand National on Alcibiade. This race 

 has never fallen to the subject of the present note, who, however, 

 won the Grand National Hunt Steeple-chase from fifteen com- 

 petitors in 1879 on Mr. Vyner's Bellringer. The course at 

 Derby, w^here the meeting took place in that year, was an ex- 

 tremely severe one, so much so that a protest against its severity 

 was made by some of those interested in the event. Mr. 

 Arthur Coventry, on being consulted, declared it to be in his 

 opinion an excellent course, which any alteration w^ould tend to 

 destroy ; and the result proved that he at least found it suitable. 

 The Great Metropolitan Steeple-chase at Croydon he also won 

 on The Scot, a Blair Athol horse, in 188 1. Many other races 

 over a country and over hurdles have been won by him ; so 

 highly is he regarded that his appearance on a horse invari- 

 ably shortens the odds against it. His knowledge of pace 

 is unfailingly acute ; he has wonderful 'hands,' and emphatically 

 rides with his head. But it is, perhaps, on the flat that Mr. 

 Arthur Coventry excels. If his horse be only good enough, he 



