290 STEEPLE-CHASING. 



is a bad preparation for the jumper. At the best it causes 

 delay in putting him to what is to be the business of his life. 



The science of breeding the chaser and if cross-country 

 contests are to retain their popularity this matter will claim 

 -attention is not at present even in its infancy. It is unknown ; 

 and to seek guidance from the history of past winners would be 

 an exceedingly perplexing task. 



One of the very last sires whose stock might have been ex- 

 pected to make Liverpool winners was Teddington ; yet, in two 

 successive years, his daughters Emblem and Emblematic won 

 the Grand National. It has been generally asserted that the 

 Trumpeters did not train on, and, as a three-year-old, Casse 

 Tete, a daughter of this sire, ran precisely a score of races with 

 only one win. At seven years old she carried off the Grand 

 National, in quick time, from twenty-four opponents. Com- 

 motion was a very moderate horse on the turf, and scarcely 

 saved himself from being written down a failure at the stud ; 

 but his son Disturbance, with a steadier of 1 1 st. IT Ibs. in the 

 saddle, was successful at Liverpool in a field of twenty- eight. 

 Reugny's breeding made his chances of victory in great races 

 seem slight, yet he too won the great race at Aintree, and 

 many other examples might be adduced to show that there is 

 much haphazard in the selection of steeple-chase horses. 



The Irish chasers that have lately won races have been bred 

 from comparatively few sires. Solon, Xenophon, Uncas, and 

 The Lawyer have been the chief of them ; and surely amongst 

 English sires there are to be found better than these (though 

 with such a son as Barcaldine it is not quite easy to say how 

 good Solon may be), and fitter for the purpose of breeding 

 chasers. Xenophon's sons, Cyrus and Seaman, fought out the 

 Grand National of 1882. Tame Fox and Zitella are his off- 

 spring. Mohican is a son of Uncas, the sire of such per- 

 formers as Too Good, Bacchus, Quadroon, &c. The stock of 

 these four horses, it may be said, have on numerous courses 

 held their own against the best English-bred animals that 

 could be brought against them. 



