NATIONAL HUNT STEEPLECHASE 221 



who regained his position after passing the stand, and 

 then at the last fliorht of hurdles Cardioran took the lead 

 and appeared likely to win, but Pickles was not to be 

 shaken off, and getting up in the last stride, after a fine 

 race, won by a head ; a bad third. 



1874 



The National Hunt Committee made an excellent 

 choice this year in fixing upon the eminently sporting 

 course of Aylesbury as the scene of the Grand National 

 Hunt Steeplechase. It was a course that, as will be 

 seen on another page, was studded with steeplechase 

 memories of forty years previously. Captain Becher 

 on Vivian, after having formerly won a steeplechase 

 at Northampton, carried off a cup at Aylesbury over 

 a four-mile course over the best part of the Vale. 

 This, however, was not over the Prebendal Farm 

 course used by undergraduates for several years, and 

 on this occasion by the National Hunt Committee. 

 The course was not perhaps as big as it had been in 

 the days of the "Aylesbury Aristocratic" meetings, 

 for then the wide ditches which came on the taking-- 

 off side of the fences were not hurdled up as they 

 were this year. Still Aylesbury was scarcely inferior 

 to the best course which had been visited by the 

 Committee. Against these formidable fences, how- 

 ever, over which generations of undergraduates had 

 ridden without misgiving, the riders this year pro- 

 tested, and one heard a good deal about the big fences 

 and the nasty course. Mr. Studd absolutely declined 

 to run Glow-worm, Mr. Holman would not start 

 Fashionable, and other owners took the same view 

 of the situation, so twelve runners only competed for 

 a race for which there were a hundred subscribers. 



