ORGANISED STEEPLECHASING 57 



run at St. Albans in the latter year. The reason why 

 the steeplechase was brought forward from the spring 

 of one year to the Christmas of the previous year, was 

 that Coleman and his friends discovered that by the 

 middle of March so many steeplechases had been run 

 (Coleman's example had been followed in many other 

 places) that not only was the form of the horses known, 

 but many horses were stale, and the sightseers rather 

 surfeited with so much jumping. Some of the farmers, 

 moreover, did not like their land being utilised so late 

 in the season, and their objection added to the diffi- 

 culty of securing a convenient line of country. Bell's 

 Life had for some time been denouncing "the abomin- 

 able flag system," and this second race of the year 

 was remarkable : first, for being run in December ; 

 secondly, for the abandonment of the ordinary flags, and 

 the substitution of two or three only ; and thirdly, for a 

 successful objection against the horse first past the post. 



The race was a sweepstakes of 10 sovereigns each ; 

 the distance was three miles, and each of the eight 

 starters carried 12 stone. 



The runners were : Mr. Villebois's br. g. Lottery 

 (J. Mason), Mr. Jenkins's bl. m. Midnight (Barker), 

 Mr. J. Elmore's b. g. The Fox of Bally Botherem 

 (H. Elmore), Mr. Thomas's b. g. Shylock (Captain 

 Becher), Mr. Anderson's The Performer (Oliver), Mr. 

 Lambden's Laura (Bean), Mr. Jackson's gr. m. Cin- 

 derella (Martin), Mr. Walker's ch. m. Grasshopper 

 (Seffert). 



Lottery was already well known as "a dangerous 

 horse to meet on flat grass land," though doubts were 

 then entertained as to his steeplechasing abilities. The 

 Performer, discarded by Isaac Day after the Goodwood 

 meeting of two years before, had in the meantime been 

 put to steeplechasing. It was a mistake to have started 

 Lottery at all, seeing that he (like The Fox) was quite 



