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A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



do so, as he made sure of winning with The Doctor, ridden by his son George ; 

 but, as most people know, he was just beaten by The Colonel, ridden by George 

 Stevens. 



For a number of years, dating from the early thirties, the Leamington and 

 Warwick Steeplechases enjoyed great repute, and in 1839 there were thirty-eight 

 fences in the line, several of them being posts and rails, and two fair-sized 

 brooks had to be crossed. The three placed horses Lord Macdonald's The Nun, 

 Mr. Walker's Sportsman, and Mr. McDonough's Sir William were ridden by 

 three famous riders: Jem Mason, Tom Olliver, and Mr. Alan McDonough, 

 the owner of the third. Jem Mason, a consummate horseman, was born at 



Stilton, and was sent to 

 Huntingdon Grammar 

 School, where was Frank 

 Butler, afterwards the 

 famous flat-race jockey. 

 Mason, sen., bred and 

 dealt in hunters, and 

 horsed a coach or two 



' : - ; over some of the middle 



ground, and here it was 

 that Jem Mason first 

 learned riding. Mr. 

 Mason, sen., finding it 

 necessary to leave Stil- 

 ton, he went to live at 

 Pinner, where young Mason was thrown among a number of steeplechasing men 

 like Elmore and Anderson, and made his first appearance at St. Albans in 1834 

 on The Poet, a horse which really belonged to Lord Frederick Beauclerc, though 

 it ran in another name. For a number of years he was quite at the head of 

 his calling, his services being in great request everywhere. His health gave way 

 at last, and he had to give up riding. Jem Mason died in 1886 after an operation 

 for tracheotomy. Tom Olliver, or Black Tom, as he was called, was a brilliant 

 horseman, but an eccentric person, who had a marvellously varied career from 

 a financial standpoint, what little success he had being due chiefly to Jem Mason, 

 who, in one way and another, set him on his legs more than once. Olliver had 



A real stiff one. 

 Mr. Coulthwaite's training-grounds at Hednesford. 



