584 A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



nothing for flat racing ; but soon after leaving Oxford he had a mount on Haivk, 

 by Scherdone, over the stiff Roxburgh course in County Galway, jumping one wall 

 where it was five feet nine inches high. Lord Clanricarde also won a couple of 

 steeplechases on Elmore's famous horse, Moonraker, a tremendous puller, but so 

 big a jumper that he is said to have once cleared a lane and both hedges in the 

 Metropolitan district under Lord Clanricarde. He won the National Hunt Steeple- 

 chase in 1864 with Caustic, by St. Luke, a horse which only three weeks before 

 was carrying his owner with the Ouorn Hounds from Melton Mowbray. He had 

 but a fortnight's training at Howth Castle, yet, ridden by Mr. Long, he won by 

 three lengths. 



The soldiers' race of 1830 having proved so great a success, Coleman set himself 

 to work to found an annual meeting, the first of the regular series taking place on 

 the ist of March, 1831, under the name of the Hertfordshire Steeplechase. The 

 winner was Moonraker, then the property of Mr. Lee ; but he was ridden by- 

 Mr. Parker, who wore the same crimson jacket in which Conolly had won the 

 St. Leger on Mr. Beardsworth's Birmingham in 1830. The year 1839, when 

 entries were meagre and the horses of poor quality, saw the last of the St. Albans 

 Steeplechases ; but they had set an excellent example, and in a very few years 

 after they were started, steeplechasing on Coleman's lines began to crop up 

 everywhere. During the nine years over which St. Albans continued a good 

 many notable men and horses appeared there. Among the former was Captain 

 Becher, son of a Norfolk farmer and horsedealer, for whom the boy acted as 

 rough-rider. When he joined the Yeomanry, the Duke of Buckingham conferred 

 upon him the courtesy title of captain. Some one who had seen him ride was so 

 taken with his horsemanship that he procured for him a berth in the department 

 of the Store- keeper General, and for two or three years he was abroad with the 

 army of occupation. Then he returned to England, rode his first race on Reuben 

 Butler at Hounslow for Coleman, with whom he lived on and off for twenty years, 

 became eminent as a steeplechase rider, gave his name to the brook at Aintree, 

 retired from riding in 1838, was for a few months in the employment of the 

 Great Northern Railway, and now lies buried in Willesden Cemetery. Captain 

 Becher won the St. Albans Steeplechase on Grimaldi in 1836; but no sooner 

 had he passed the post than the horse reared up, fought with his fore legs, and 

 dropped stone dead, whereupon an objection was lodged against Elmore receiving 

 the stakes, on the ground that he did not return to the weighing-room ; but it 



