98 STEEPLECHASING 



the finish it seemed as though Peter Simple and Milo 

 — the latter a horse standing lyh hands high — would 

 have the race to themselves, Brunette being quite ten 

 lengths behind at the last fence ; but no sooner did Mr. 

 Preston (who rode without spurs and had no occasion 

 to use the whip) give the mare her head than she shot 

 up and eventually beat Milo by a length, Peter Simple 

 beine third, a like distance behind the second. There 

 is no need to mention Brunette's other Irish successes, 

 but in 1847 she crossed the Irish Channel for the first 

 time, and after running at Worcester and Hereford she 

 was started for the Grand National, being then thirteen 

 years old. She reached Liverpool on the Saturday 

 before the race. She then seemed perfectly fit and well, 

 but next day she was anything but right, and on the 

 day of the steeplechase was so very bad that she would 

 never have been sent to the post had it not been that 

 an Irish sportsman had laid a very large sum of money 

 on her starting, and although she appeared to have been 

 completely tailed off at one time, she ran so gamely as 

 to finish fourth. Mr. McDonough himself, it is said, 

 stood to win ^10,000 over her. Then at Leamington, 

 whither she went after the Liverpool, Brunette broke 

 down and went back again to Ireland. Mr. Preston 

 bred from the mare, but none of her progeny were worth 

 anything at all. She died in her twenty-second year 

 when foaling to Portrait. She was then, by the way, 

 the property of the Hon. W. Hely Hutchinson of 

 Palmerstown. In connection with Brunette, it may be 

 mentioned that Mr. Preston had a van built to convey 

 her from meeting to meeting, as at that time there was 

 little direct train communication in Ireland. 



Mr. Alan McDonough, above mentioned, died at his 

 residence. Park Gate Street, Dublin, on the 12th May 

 1888. He was born at Wellmont, county Galway, and 

 his first mount was, It Is said, on Mr. Doolan's Hugo de 



