i88 THE TURF 



he must have been extremely dangerous had he not 

 fallen or been knocked over. The proportion of acci- 

 dents in the Grand National is, however, always very 

 large ; sixteen horses, for instance, started in 1 890, and 

 only five of them stood up the whole way round, though 

 Why Not, after giving his owner, Mr. C. J. Cunning- 

 ham, a bad fall, was remounted and finished fifth. 

 Three other winners were among the fallers, Frigate, 

 Gamecock, and Voluptuary. One never knows what 

 may happen in a steeplechase. One of the starters 

 that year was an extremely bad animal and a very 

 uncertain jumper, named Pan, but on this occasion he 

 managed, for a wonder, to stand up when so many of 

 his superiors came to grief, and to the general astonish- 

 ment finished second. Pan's price in the betting was 

 100 to I offered ; he had been sold a few weeks before 

 the race for 120 guineas, and if Ilex, who won this 

 year, had followed the general example. Pan would 

 actually have won, for M.P., who followed him, was a 

 very long way behind, a bad third. Few persons 

 besides his immediate friends ever believed that Father 

 O'Flynn would win a Grand National, as he was a 

 particularly uncertain and self-willed animal, but his 

 name must not be omitted from this retrospect, mainly 

 because he was persuaded to do his best by that suc- 

 cessful horseman the late Major "Roddy" Owen, who, 

 having gained the great object of his ambition by win- 

 ning the chief of cross country races, finally abandoned 

 the sport to which he had been so devoted, and entered 



