GREEN; YELLOW SLEEVES, BELT, AND CAP 



1907 

 About this period Mr. Bibby's quest in Ireland for 

 promising Liverpool horses was not particularly suc- 

 cessful. He had heard, however, that there might be 

 possibilities in a young one named Loop Head, a chest- 

 nut son of Brayhead and Barberry. As a four-year-old 

 Loop Head had won two of the three little races for 

 which he had started in Ireland, and had kept it up as a 

 five-year-old, taking the Adare Cup at Croome and the 

 County Plate at Tuam. This may not have meant 

 much, though it meant something, and in the winter of 

 1906 Loop Head was carrying the green, yellow belt and 

 sleeves at Gatwick. Mason rode him in the Winter 

 'Chase, where he finished third to another five-year-old, 

 Denmark, a well bred son of Queen's Birthday, who had 

 shown himself to be useful and whom later Mr. Bibby 

 secured. It was not long before the new purchase — 

 Loop Head — came to the front. He won a Novices' 

 'Chase at Hurst Park in the following January, and 

 though this was his only success for some time he ran 

 up more than once elsewhere, making a good show in 

 the Great Bangor Handicap Steeplechase, only missing 

 the Cranbourne 'Chase at Newbury by a head, and 

 scoring at Tenby the following January. Little hope 

 was entertained of him at Liverpool in 1907, though 

 the field was somewhat below the average in point of 

 merit, as is shown by the fact that Ascetic's Silver, who 



78 



