OTHER COUNTRY MEETINGS 171 



then rounding a loop, the head of the pear, for three furlongs, 

 and travelling back half a mile up the reverse side. 



The summer fixture is confined to two days and is held 

 in July, generally in the week before Goodwood. There are 

 of course no jumping events on the programme, and the 

 Summer Cup is the principal attraction. As in the spring, 

 however, the card is a strong one, and besides the Cup it 

 includes the St. George's Stakes for three-year-olds, worth 

 about £2fxyo, run on the Cup Course, the Knowsley Dinner 

 Stakes, also for three-year-olds, and run on a nine-furlong 

 course, the Lancashire Breeders' Produce Stakes for two- 

 year-olds, one of the most valuable two-year-old prizes 

 of the year, and such short handicaps as the Molyneux 

 and Croxteth Plates, either of which is well worth winning, 

 and both of them affording good public trials for horses 

 engaged in the Goodwood Stewards' Cup. In spite of the 

 richness of its stakes the Summer Meeting does not com- 

 mand such an attendance as do the earlier and later fixtures, 

 and the date is hardly a good one for many of the Turf 

 magnates, the meeting being often sandwiched between the 

 Eclipse meeting at Sandown and Goodwood. In November 

 the meeting extends over three, and sometimes four days, 

 and again a wonderful programme is issued. To begin with, 

 there are several minor jumping events, in addition to the 

 Sefton Steeplechase, which is a three-mile handicap, and 

 almost invariably brings out some of the best cross-country 

 horses in training. These minor steeplechases at Liverpool 

 have a special attraction, as they are really nurseries for 

 aspirants to Grand National honours, and many promising 

 young Irish horses are bought out of them at long figures, 

 with a view to performing in the greater Liverpool steeple- 

 chase a year or two later. The Autumn Cup generally 

 secures a market for about a fortnight before it is run, and, 

 being one of the last big betting races of the year, it always 

 arouses a fair amount of interest. The nurseries too are 

 an attraction, and almost invariably bring out large fields, 

 and there are such handicaps as the Croxteth Plate of five 

 furlongs, the Stewards' Plate of six furlongs, and the Lanca- 

 shire Handicap of a mile to swell the list. The Sefton 



