A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



moved to a course on Kayte Farm. It was 

 there in 1866 that the meeting received a 

 serious check by the collapse of the stand, a 

 mishap which resulted in injury to a great many 

 people. The committee was sued by some of 

 the victims, and as the contractors who supplied 

 the stand became bankrupt at the time, the 

 committee lost a considerable sum of money. 

 At this meeting Mr. Reginald Herbert, of Clytha, 

 lately master of the Monmouthshire Hounds, 

 won the Grand Annual of ^500 with Columbia, 

 beating among others Cortolvin, L'African, and 

 Emblematic. The following year, 1867, the 

 meeting was removed to a course at Prestbury, 

 part of which is now covered by the Cheltenham 

 cemetery ; William Holman's eldest son, William 

 R. Holman, managed these races for some years, 

 holding a steeplechase meeting in the spring and 

 a flat-race meeting in the autumn. He also 

 managed a small flat-race meeting held at this 

 time at Gloucester. In 1875 George Holman 

 won the Grand Annual for his father's stable on 

 Master Mowbray, giving Congress I Ib. In this 

 race R. Marsh, who had been living with Tom 

 Golby at Northleach, and had just removed to 

 Lordship Farm, Newmarket, was riding Furley, 

 who swerved and fell at the first hurdles, bring- 

 ing down Harbinger and Mistletoe ; Alfred 

 Holman, who rode the latter, was badly injured 

 and was carried into the paddock for dead, at 

 the moment his brother was led in as winner 

 after a popular victory. In the eighties the 

 races began to fall into disrepute in Cheltenham ; 

 they were finally abandoned in 1892. 



It was not until 1898 that Mr. Jack Har- 

 greaves and some friends got up a meeting at 

 Prestbury Park, and revived the old Grand 

 Annual. Alfred Holman maintained the family 

 traditions by supplying the winner in Mr. R. C. 

 B. Cave's Xebee, the writer having the mount. 

 The horse had been done up and watered just 

 before the race, as his owner had not intended to 

 run him, but Holman was so anxious to be repre- 

 sented that Mr. Cave allowed him to be brought 

 across from the Prestbury Park stables and started. 

 After this the meeting again fell into abeyance ; 

 it was again revived in 1902, and very success- 

 ful races are held in spring and autumn. The 

 National Hunt Steeplechase, as already men- 

 tioned, was held there in 1904 and 1905. 



Other meetings now held in Gloucestershire 

 are Colwall and the annual hunt meetings of the 

 V.W.H. at Oaksey and the Duke of Beaufort's 

 hounds at Sherston ; there are also point-to- 

 point meetings held by other hunts, the best of 

 which is that of the Ledbury over a fine natural 

 course at Redmarley. 



Gloucestershire has some excellent natural 

 training-grounds on the Downs of the Cottes- 

 wold Hills. At present the principal training 

 centres are Cheltenham and Cleeve Hill, but 

 there are fine gallops on Bourton Hill, where 

 Russell has a good string. In the old days of 

 steeplechasing Tom Golby had training stables 

 at Northleach, and used to gallop his horses at 

 Stowell and Puesdown. Phryne was trained 

 here by him for the Bristol Steeplechase. In the 

 sixties Weaver had a very successful stable at 

 Bourton Hill, where he trained Emblem and 

 Emblematic for their successes in the Grand 

 Nationals of 1863 and 1864 for Lord Coventry. 

 Best known among later racing men in the 

 county was Mr. H. S. Sidney, who settled in 

 Cheltenham in 1896. He was then only 

 twenty-five years old, but had already made a 

 name for himself by his success in training and 

 riding his own horses. He was very hardwork- 

 ing, a rare judge of a horse, a first-rate stableman, 

 and an adept at ' placing ' his horses. He turned 

 out an extraordinary number of winners. In 

 1901 he headed the list of gentlemen riders. 

 On three of his best horses Gangbridge, Short- 

 bread, and Cavill II he won no less than forty- 

 six races. In 1902 he moved to Weaver's 

 old training ground at Bourton Hill ; but on 

 26 December of the same year this popular all- 

 round sportsman was killed in a race at Wolver- 

 hampton. Steeplechasing received a severe blow 

 by his untimely death. Among present well- 

 known trainers in the county are Alfred Holman, 

 J. T. Rogers, and Mr. E. M. Munby at Chel- 

 tenham, and Russell at Bourton Hill. Messrs. 

 Rogers, Munby, and Cuthbertson are also well- 

 known gentlemen riders. Soldier riders have 

 been represented by Mr. Hugh and the late 

 Captain ' Roddy ' Owen, who at one time lived 

 in Cheltenham ; Captain (now Colonel) J. W. 

 Yardley, and Captain Elwes. 



The Hon. Aubrey Hastings began his racing 

 career with a little private establishment at 

 Woodmancote near Cirencester, on the same 

 ground on which Craddock trained a few horses 

 for Mr. Charles Hoare, when master of the 

 V.W.H. Other well-known gentlemen riders 

 have at various times lived and trained on Cleeve 

 Hill, notably Mr. G. Saunders Davies and Mr. 

 A. W. Wood. 



Flat-racing is, it is to be feared, a thing of the 

 past in Gloucestershire, owing to the distance of 

 our natural down courses from the railways ; it 

 is a county, however, in which steeplechasing in 

 its best form has always been popular ; and it 

 has produced some of the finest horsemen in the 

 world, both on the flat and across country. 



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