THE SELECTION OF THE CHASER. 297 



in these days receives additional proof when the pace at which 

 steeple-c:hases are run is critically examined. Let us even com- 

 pare the Grand National with the Derby, and it will be seen that, 

 taking the different circumstances into consideration, there is 

 actually little difference between the respective rates of speed. 



During the last twenty years the average time of the Derby, 

 one and a half mile, is 2 min. 48 sec. ; during the same period 

 the average time of the Grand National, a very long four and a 

 half miles, has been 10 min. 13 sec. ; that is to say, a mile has 

 been run at Epsom in i min. 52 sec, and at Liverpool in 

 twenty-four seconds more — that is, in 2 min. 16 sec. There 

 are on the Liverpool course some thirty jumps of formidable 

 size ; the going on the turf is generally worse than at Epsom, and 

 there are some ploughed fields to be crossed ; moreover, while 

 the Derby horses have carried 8 st. 10 Ibs.,^ the Liverpool horses 

 have carried during these years an average of, as nearly as 

 possible, 1 1 stone. The question of weight for age has to be 

 considered ; but, reckoning this, it w^ill be seen that a Grand 

 National is run at what is almost the pace of the Derby, 

 maintained, it must always be remembered, for thrice the 

 distance of the Epsom course. 



By taking extreme cases, more might, of course, be proved. 

 Thus Huntsman's Grand National time is given at 9 min. 30 sec. 

 — six seconds less than on the occasion of The Lamb's first win 

 — that is, a mile in 2 min. 6 sec. Ellington took 3 min. 4 sec. to 

 gallop the Derby course— that is, a mile in 2 min. 3 sec. ; and 

 the extraordinary fact remains that the four and a half miles 

 of the Grand National have been run at a speed per mile as 

 nearly as possible equal to the Derby time for that easy mile 

 and a half at Epsom. ^ 



It is obvious, therefore, that to expect an underbred horse 

 to win a Grand National is equivalent to believing that a hack 

 might win the Derby. 



1 Colts now carry 9 St., and have done so since 1884 ; but we are discussing 

 a period of twenty years. 



- The Derby course is easy. Nevertheless, the first quarter of a mile is up 

 a steep hill where horses go slowly. Liverpool is dead flat, — Ed. 



