OTHER COUNTRY MEETINGS 165 



up, and as a rule single file becomes the order of the 

 moment. Several have fallen and others have been pulled 

 up, and those which are left in the race are then pretty 

 easy to tell, though even under very favourable weather 

 circumstances the best of experts sometimes make mistakes 

 as to which is which, and if there are two or three similar 

 colours amongst the runners the positions of those left to 

 fight out the finish are not clearly ascertained until the 

 flat-race course is reached. The fact of the race being 

 four miles and a half in length — 4 miles 856 yards, to be 

 exact — and therefore of about nine minutes' duration, 

 keeps the excitement up to concert pitch, and this excite- 

 ment becomes even greater on a bad day, when the 

 colours cannot be properly distinguished. Onlookers are 

 kept in a state of suspense far longer than in an ordinary 

 flat race, and it is this perhaps which accounts for the 

 extraordinary reception which the winner always gets. 

 Should the successful horse be owned by a popular man, 

 or be ridden by a popular jockey, or should he have been 

 a favourite at the start, the outburst is more intensified ; 

 and if, as often happens, the race is won by an Irish 

 horse, he is saluted with a chorus of Irish yells, which are 

 anything but melodious, but which speak volumes as to 

 the estimation in which a good steeplechaser is held on 

 the other side of the Channel. 



The Liverpool Course is situated at Aintree, a flat plain 

 about six miles from the centre of Liverpool, which can be 

 reached in about twenty minutes by train, and there is also 

 a line of electric trams running. There is a fine service of 

 specials, not only from Liverpool, but from Manchester, South- 

 port, and all the big Lancashire towns, to say nothing of York 

 and all the long chain of towns which lie in the southern 

 portion of the West Riding. From the Midlands, too, 

 come many specials, and even some of the London visitors 

 go to Aintree and return on the same day. At Liverpool 

 there is hotel accommodation galore, much more choice than 

 the racing man is accustomed to elsewhere, and all the 

 Manchester and Southport hotels are invariably full. South- 

 port is not far from the course, and the specials from 



