GREEN; YELLOW SLEEVES. BELT, AND CAP 



show some promise of training on into that rare product 

 of the thoroughbred, the " Liverpool horse," have 

 proved themselves unmistakably lacking in the essential 

 attributes. Thus it has befallen that during the last 

 forty years the average number of starters, of horses 

 found worthy to compete in a Liverpool, has been a 

 fraction over twenty. This I calculate to be much 

 under two per cent., not much over one per cent., of 

 the jumpers in training, and there are exceedingly few 

 owners who would fail to take advantage of the chance 

 if they had a horse whose getting round seemed fairly 

 possible ; indeed, every year the entry has included 

 animals whose presence has rather tended to provoke a 

 smile, so completely have they appeared to be out of 

 their class. 



The only thing that could ever be urged against the 

 great 'chase to counterbalance the fact of its being the 

 glory of 'cross country sport was that to some extent it 

 weakened interest In racing under National Hunt Rules 

 towards the close of the year. This was because certain 

 owners had an eye to the prospective Liverpool handi- 

 cap, and were reluctant to draw attention to horses who 

 were showing anything like good form. I think they 

 were In the vast majority of cases unduly cautious, for 

 at any rate of late years Mr. E. A. C. Topham — and in 

 former days Mr. Reginald Mainwaring, when he had a 

 hand In the compilation — were in the habit of adjusting 

 the weights in a very great measure exclusively on what 



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