GREEN; YELLOW SLEEVES, BELT, AND CAP 



there, as of course Mason had no claim after keeping me 

 waiting till the last moment. No one wanted to ride 

 the horse in fact, and poor Nugent was really not to be 

 blamed, as Kirkland gave his rider no * feel.' On my 

 return to the Adelphi I found a wire from Mason accept- 

 ing, so with the least possible delay I let Nugent know. 

 It seemed a relief to him much more than a disappoint- 

 ment. 



" Mason won by eight lengths from Manifesto, who 

 if you will look at the details may I really think be 

 said to have run one of the best races of his life, seeing 

 that he was giving Kirkland 35 lb. As soon as Mason 

 got off the horse's back his first words were ' Will you 

 let me ride this horse in the National ? ' I felt that we 

 had a Liverpool horse, the most difficult animal in the 

 world to find. Next year he ran fourth in the National 

 — Mason always swears he was easily third — according 

 to the judge beaten a head by Manifesto, who was this 

 time giving him 231b. The following year Kirkland 

 was second to Moifaa, and Mason always told me after- 

 wards that it was this race which made him absolutely 

 certain of winning next time, bar accidents. You may 

 have forgotten that Mason, quite against our wishes, 

 rode some horse about a fortnight before the 1904 

 Liverpool and had a bad fall. He made light of it 

 and appeared all right for our race ; but he had broken 

 two ribs and was very tightly bandaged, so much so that 

 he was completely unable to make anything like proper 



90 



