SOME LIVERPOOLS, INCLUDING KIRKLAND'S 



the winners of a National, of two Sefton Steeplechases 

 and two National Hunt 'Chases." 



"The first winner Frank Bibby and I had together," 

 Colonel Lort-Phillips continues, "was Lady Lovelace, 

 a little mare, 15.1, whom I had bought as a five-year-old 

 for £^0 from the Master of the Pembrokeshire, who 

 had found her in Ireland. She won fourteen races, 

 though none of any class. The next horse in my book 

 is Rickarstown, for whom I gave 36 guineas. He won 

 four small races, had run six times without winning 

 before I bought him, and never won again after I sold 

 him for 86 guineas." 



1901 

 Coming to better known animals, it was in the year 

 1 90 1 that Mr. Bibby made his first attempt at Aintree — 

 in the previous chapter I have commented on the 

 natural ambition of an owner of 'chasers. At the sale 

 of the Duke of Hamilton's horses a chestnut gelding 

 named Zodiac was offered. He was a son of Astrology 

 and Far and Wide, and as a four-year-old in 1900 really 

 did remarkably well in a humble way, though his first 

 essay was admittedly not encouraging. On that occa- 

 sion, at Tenby, he was one of the three out of four 

 who fell in the Town Steeplechase. He was ridden by 

 Mr. A. W. Wood, son, I believe, of a Lincolnshire 

 clergyman, a very competent amateur, one of the best 

 of his day indeed, and one of the keenest. Zodiac's 



35 



