68 STEEPLECHASING 



in tinding out the flags. They were upwards of twenty 

 minutes going over the course, and were at fault at 

 least half-a-dozen times. McDonough also complained 

 not only of being ridden against, as above stated, but 

 also of the same party crossing him several times 

 during the race. 



In the evening about twenty sat down to dinner at 

 Coleman's, but only the winner of the race was present, 

 the others not being satisfied with the management of 

 the affair. 



Several letters were afterwards written complaining" 

 of the conduct of Coleman in charging each jockey five 

 shillings for weighing, in not allowing them to see the 

 ground, and the extremely bad manner in which it was 

 flagged. 



Thus the St. Albans steeplechases, as instituted by 

 Coleman, came to an end, through perhaps no fault of 

 his own. His meetings were quite different to anything 

 ever seen before, and, as the foregoing accounts show, 

 they took immensely at first. As soon as two or three 

 of the steeplechases had been held, other places followed 

 suit, and as meetings became more common, there was 

 less probability of the patronage extended to one being 

 maintained. Then those who promoted the various 

 rival gatherings astutely came to the conclusion that, 

 if good entries were obtained where owners had to run 

 for their own money, better results still would follow if 

 added money were given, and this is where other pro- 

 moters beat Coleman. He never dunned people for 

 subscriptions, and had not himself the means whereby to 

 add a shilling to the stakes. Still, his idea of a steeple- 

 chase was the rig-ht one. He established them for 

 hunters, and arranged them for the end of the hunting 

 season, before horses were thrown up. 



Though Coleman established the St. Albans steeple- 

 chases he never ran but one horse in them, and that was 



