NATIONAL HUNT STEEPLECHASE 207 



over Newmarket Heath, and pulled up as sound as a 

 bell after passing the winning post. 



At this meeting the Committee organised The Great 

 Corinthian Cup of ^200 added to a sweepstakes of £;^o 

 each, but with a proviso that the added money would be 

 withdrawn if six horses did not start. When the condi- 

 tions were drawn up the management little thought that 

 the above clause would so soon come into effect, but 

 five horses only went to the post, the winner being Mr. 

 John Goodliffe's The Czar, ridden by Mr. A. Goodman, 

 Lord Tredegar naming the second, which was Penarth, 

 ridden by George Holman. 



1864 



Some time prior to the race a circular was issued 

 to the Masters of Hounds in England, which, after stating 

 that the demand for high-class hunters exceeded the 

 supply, pointed out that in Ireland, the breeding-ground 

 of our best hunters, a prize of ^300 was given by the 

 different Hunts to be run for in a steeplechase at 

 Punchestown, and that most of the horses taken there 

 in 1863 by breeders changed hands, many of them 

 being bought for England. The success of that scheme 

 prompted its imitation in England, and it was resolved 

 not only to add yearly a good sum of money to the 

 steeplechase, but to admit farmers' horses at half the 

 entry fee and to grant them a weight allowance of 5 lbs. 

 The Prince of Wales headed a subscription list with 

 ^10, and Masters of Hounds were asked to appoint 

 one or more persons in their respective Hunts to collect 

 small sums from hunting men. 



There was this year a capital field of twenty-eight 

 horses, and the race is of course memorable from the 

 fact that it was first run under the i^e'^'s of what was then 



