GREEN; YELLOW SLEEVES, BELT. AND CAP 



reputation, and he became so great a public fancy that 

 in the end no more than 13 to 2 was to be had about 

 him. What might have happened had he stood up 

 cannot of course be guessed. A field of four and twenty 

 went to the post, and of these eleven finished without 

 mishap. Kirkland does not come into this category, for 

 though he finished seventh, a detail duly recorded, this 

 was only after a fall, his jockey remounting and con- 

 tinuing to persevere, a phrase which in this connection 

 means to be in a position to take any chance in the 

 event of any being forthcoming by reason of mishaps 

 to most of those in front; it has often happened in 

 a steeplechase that the leaders have fallen and a horse 

 whose prospects have appeared hopeless has gained an 

 apparently impossible victory. 



On this occasion I watched the race in company 

 with Mr. Fred Withington from the top of Lord 

 Derby's stand, and have a distinct recollection of his 

 amazement when he saw Rubio, carrying his owner's 

 black, red sleeves and cap, lengths in front of his follower 

 over the last fence, that follower being Mattie Mac- 

 gregor. A fortnight previously Rubio, ridden by 

 W. Bissell, had been unplaced fo'r a steeplechase at 

 Hooton Park, and two or three weeks before that failure 

 he had been even less conspicuous at Kempton. Bissell 

 here rode Mattie Macgregor, on the supposition that she 

 was at any rate the better of the two, and H. Bletsoe 

 was lucky enough to have the mount on the winner, to 



84 



