FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 361 



was in constant practice, and probably spent more time in 

 the saddle than the majority of jockeys who are not called 

 * Mr.' He was, however, somewhat uncertain. Sometimes he 

 rode with wonderful patience and judgment, at other times 

 wildly and excitedly. When it was his day, he was bad to 

 beat. 



A very extraordinary thing about the victory of Anatis was 

 that the horse had not jumped a fence for a year before he won 

 the Liverpool. That he had been thoroughly schooled is a 

 matter of course. Without careful teaching and constant prac- 

 tice up to, at any rate, a certain limit — until, indeed, the animal 

 is a finished fencer — no horse has a chance of wmning the 

 Grand National ; nor, indeed, is he likely to get safely over the 

 long and fatiguing journey. Anatis ran at Aintree, and ran 

 well, the year before his success, in 1859 (when Half Caste won 

 m the hands of C. Green), but his legs showed such symptoms 

 of giving way that his trainer dared not send him over a 

 country. He did all his work on the flat, and the consequence 

 was that from the time when he crossed the last fence in the 

 Grand National of 1859 he had never been over a jump till he 

 ran in the Grand National of i860. He had forgotten nothing, 

 the event proved ; and got home, not only safely, but first, in a 

 field of nineteen. 



Emblem in 1863, and her sister Emblematic in 1864 who 

 won the race for Lord Coventry in the hands of George 

 Stevens, were at first sight — that is to say, to the casual observer 

 — wTetche'd-looking animals. Emblem, probably the better of 

 the pair, was all shoulders and quarters, with no ribs ; but the 

 essentials of the chaser w^ere to be detected in the sisters, and 

 Stevens, who won five Grand Nationals, did full justice to both. 

 In Emblematic's year a number of horses lived to the race- 

 course, and the inexperienced spectator would have been 

 puzzled to say which w^as going best. To the eye of the horse- 

 man, however, there was little doubt. Standing by Lord 

 Coventry's side as the horses jumped on to the racecourse was 

 such a judge, who remarked to the owner, ' You may go 



