FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 367 



been ridden with more perseverance and determination by Mr. 

 Garrett Moore, he would have repeated his victory in spite of 

 the 12 st. 7 Ibs. Regal was favourite, but fell. 



Woodbrook, a stable companion of Empress, in the hands 

 of the same pilot, carried off the next year's race, Regal, ridden 

 by his trainer, Jewitt, being second, and Jewitt was more suc- 

 cessful next year, for he trained the winner in Seaman, oddly 

 enough a cast-off, or practically so, from Mr. Linde's stable. 

 No doubt it was thought in Ireland that Seaman would not 

 stand a preparation, and that it was safer to trust the fortunes 

 of the stable to Cyrus, like Seaman, a son of Xenophon. The 

 Irish division was wrong, but not far wrong ; and Captain 

 Machell's judgment was vindicated. Seaman won the Grand 

 National, his owner, Lord Manners, riding, but he broke down 

 as he passed the post, and this perhaps explains why Cyrus, 

 with only 1 1 Ibs. the best of the weights, got within a head of 

 his former stable companion, under the guidance of Mr. T. 

 Beasley, when, all fit and well, 2 st. would probably not have 

 brought them together. It is thought by many that, if The 

 Liberator had not fallen with James Adams, and if Eau-de- 

 Vie had not run the wrong side of a post, one of these two 

 would have been successful ; but the perusal of this chapter 

 will have shown the reader, if such showing were necessary, 

 how all-important a part ' ifs ' bear in the history of steeple- 

 chases. 



Seaman at his best was a horse of exceptional capacity. 

 The year before he won the Grand National he ran over the 

 course in the First Liverpool Hunt Steeple-chase. When the 

 flag fell he jumped off and went away as if the distance was five 

 furlongs, instead of nearly five miles. One of the riders in the 

 race remarked to a friend as they galloped across the field 

 after the first jump that the leader would * very soon come 

 back if he goes that pace,' but here the notion that you 

 ' never see a horse jump off in front and keep there all the 

 time ' was decisively contradicted. The farther Seaman went 

 the more he seemed to like the sport, and he won at his ease 



