26o STEEPLECHASING 



Regalia took up the running, Count Harry refusing 

 repeatedly and Oakstick was not able to maintain the 

 pace. As nearly all the field slipped or made a 

 mistake at the brook, the race was left for decision 

 between Regalia and Boxkeeper, the latter loo yards 

 behind. At the fence leading into the winnino^ field 

 Captain Powell made for a gap, while the rider 

 of Boxkeeper turned over the fence, and managed 

 to win by a neck, both he and his horse being 

 very much exhausted. 



1846 



** It is satisfactory," wrote a critic in this year, 

 "to find that officers have not only established steeple- 

 chases of their own, but are the greatest patrons of 

 them. It is true that the purely military meetings 

 have hitherto been among the very worst that have 

 taken place, but this has generally arisen from an 

 injudicious choice of country. Up to the present 

 year the ground selected for these races has been 

 such as would require the best men, and the best 

 horses to Qret over it. Who can have forgotten the 

 very first of them ? On that occasion twenty-eight 

 horsemen ranged themselves at the starting-post, 

 arrayed in the whitest buckskins, boots of the most 

 undeniable polish, and jackets of satin and velvet, 

 fresh from the hands of the tailor, and glowing 

 with all the colours of a tulip bed. No Derby could 

 show a more imposing start, but what a broken, 

 scattered, discomfited remnant found its way to the 

 winning field. The next was not much better, and 

 the next to that was worse still, but on the present 

 occasion a kind of country more suited to both men 

 and horses was selected. When the neighbourhood 



