THE GRAND SEFTON STEEPLECHASE 



greater test, seeing that the distance in each case is 

 the same and that the Grand Sefton is run over the 

 severe Aintree fences, whereas the Manchester course is 

 a very easy one. In 1899, the year with which our 

 history begins, Mr. Bibby sent Zodiac to Liverpool, to 

 run, however, in the Abbeystead Steeplechase for four- 

 year-olds, an event which has since been abandoned. 

 Only two went to the post, Pawnbroker was so strong 

 a favourite that odds of 4 to i were laid on him, but 

 Zodiac beat him by a dozen lengths. The stable was 

 not represented in the Grand Sefton, which was won by 

 Sir Thomas Gallwey's Hidden Mystery, with Drogheda, 

 who had won the National the previous year, a warm 

 favourite. I remember that Lord William Beresford 

 greatly fancied a five-year-old son of Ascetic named 

 Easter Ogue. I had secured Mason, who was to do 

 such admirable service later in the green and yellow, 

 for Boreen, originally named Boreenchreeogue. This 

 was one of the animals I managed and it occurred to me 

 that the last two syllables of his name might judiciously 

 be dropped. There is an idea that it is "unlucky" to 

 change a horse's name, whilst others make the change 

 with a notion that it brings good luck. I have no super- 

 stitious fancies, but it is a fact that whereas he won a 

 long list of good races in Ireland, and horses generally im- 

 prove when they come to this country and are placed in 

 the most competent hands — as was the case with Boreen, 

 for Mr. Gwyn Saunders-Davis trained him — he lost his 



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