STEEPLEC 'EASING. 599 



of some repute in Ireland, and bred Abd-el-Kader, who turned out such a Tartar 

 that he was unsexed, and it was two years after the operation before he was able 

 to be made any use of; and then, just as he was put to work, he sustained another 

 accident which nearly put a stop to any more jumping. Like Mr. Preston's 

 Brunette, Abd-el-Kader made his first appearance on an English course at 

 Worcester and won a number of races. 



As was the case with a number of other winners of the Grand National and 

 other steeplechases, the merits of Miss Mowbray, the winner in 1852, were 

 discovered merely by accident. She was bred in Bedfordshire, and was by 

 -Lancastrian out of Norma, the dam belonging to Mr. Magniac, at that time the 

 master of the Oakley Hounds. She proved too slow for racing, but for five years 

 carried her owner very well in the hunting-field. Then she was sold to a Manchester 

 man, who at once returned her as being unsound, and a year younger than repre- 

 sented. Neither Messrs. Bevill nor Goodman would look at her a second time, 

 and then Mr. J. F. Mason, after riding her one day with the Oakley Hounds, 

 became her purchaser, after she was sent from Manchester. The sequel showed 

 that Mr. Mason's judgment was superior to that of those who passed her by, as 

 she won the Warwickshire Hunt Cup, the Welter Stakes, the Open Steeplechase 

 at Leamington, and then the Liverpool Grand National. By a curious coincidence 

 she was ridden at Liverpool by the still living Mr. Alec Goodman, one of the 

 very few steeplechase riders in regular practice who wore a beard, and who 

 (as mentioned) would at first see no connection between Miss Movubray and 

 steeplechasing. 



The Liverpool of 1856 saw George Stevens win for the first time on 

 Mr. Barnet's Freetrader, while for the first time since its institution the meeting 

 extended to two days. There were a good many casualties in the race, but 

 Stevens avoided riderless horses and all other dangers ; and so pleased was 

 Mr. Barnet with his jockey's horsemanship that he is said to have given him 

 ^500 ; while a few days later some backers who profited by Freetrader 's success 

 presented the rider with a "capital hunter of the value of ^80." George Stevens 

 occupied a somewhat curious place in the ranks of steeplechase jockeys. Although 

 he was in racing stables as a lad, and began to ride over a country for Mr. Vevers 

 in Herefordshire when about sixteen years old, he was never one of those steeple- 

 chase riders who were seen in the saddle all over the country. His first important 

 win was on ffardwuke in the Grand Annual at Wolverhampton in 1851, running 



