362 STEEPLE-CHASING. 



down and meet your mare — there's nothing else in it !' and 

 the assertion was amply verified. 



Stevens was an exceedingly cautious rider ; at times he 

 even appeared nervous before he got into the saddle for a race, 

 but once in the saddle, even in his later days, he w\is usually 

 himself again. Ke certainly chanced nothing, and his un- 

 approached record of successes at Liverpool, together with his 

 constant victories on other courses, showed the wisdom of the 

 maxim which has been advocated in a former chapter. He w^as 

 gifted with first-class hands, and was an extraordinary judge of 

 pace. Critics of horsemanship declared that he habitually laid 

 too far out of his ground, but he always seemed to know when 

 to join his horses. He much alarmed Lord Coventry when 

 riding Emblem in the Cheltenham Steeple-chase. The mare 

 carried an immense weight, and her proper place was behind ; 

 but Stevens was so far behind that, as the horses passed the 

 stand. Lord Coventry ran down and shouted to his jockey to 

 go on. He did go on, and the mare w^on — which, however, she 

 would not improbably have done had his lordship not given 

 the order. The fact doubtless was that Stevens knew the risks 

 and dangers of being in the midst of a crowd of horses, and 

 preferred to run the chance of being slipped to that of being 

 jostled and perhaps knocked down. 



He had easier work on The Colonel, one of the grandest- 

 looking horses that ever won the Liverpool ; and, like Abd-el- 

 Kader, Peter Simple, and The Lamb, The Colonel won it twice. 

 He was a failure on the flat, and bore the stigma of ' h.b.' after 

 his name ; but whether his dam ought not to have been in the 

 Stud Book is a question, and his sire w\as Knight of Kars, a half- 

 brother of those famous horses, Stockwell, Rataplan, and King 

 Tom. The strain of Pocahontas blood seems specially valuable 

 in a jumper. The Colonel, however, good horse as he was, had 

 a turn of luck in winning for the second time. As what was 

 left of the field jumped into the racecourse, Surney appeared to 

 have the race in hand. At the last hurdle, when victory seemed 

 assured, the horse broke down, and twisted a plate which 



