Mr. Powell 



Laurestina, the mount of Mr. Powell ; but the mare fell a mile 

 and a half further on, and breaking away from her jockey, 

 whose shoulder was dislocated, galloped nearly into the town 

 before she could be stopped. 



Captain Becher, on Grimaldi, then took the lead, and after 

 a close race till within a couple of hundred yards from the 

 finish, he came right away, and won by three lengths ; but no 

 sooner had he been pulled up, than the old horse reared, fought 

 with his fore legs, and falling to the ground, died in a few 

 minutes, to the intense grief of Captain Becher, who had ridden 

 him in nearly, if not all, his races. 



Some well-known person at once proceeded to lodge an 

 objection against Mr. Elmore receiving the stakes, on the 

 ground that Grimaldi did not return to the winning-post, 

 which was of course correct ; but the protest was very properly 

 overruled. 



In 1836, Mr. W. Lynn, proprietor of the Waterloo Hotel 

 at Liverpool, who was also owner of the racecourse at Aintree, 

 took it into his head that with the prevailing craze for steeple- 

 chasing, it would be a source of considerable profit to himself 

 if he were to start something of the kind on his own course, 

 which so far had been used only for racing on the flat. 



Accordingly, a grand steeplechase was announced to take 

 place at Aintree on Monday, 29th of February, 1836. There 

 were two races, for the first of which a subscription of 10 

 sovereigns each with 80 sovereigns added, 1 2 st. each. There 

 were ten runners. Sir Murray Stanley's Laurie Todd, ridden 

 by Mr. Powell, being favourite at 2 to i. There seems to have 

 been in the line a gate which was to have been left open, 

 and through it Mr. Powell, on the favourite, was in the act of 

 riding, when it was suddenly shut in his face by some one 

 interested in another horse, as it was proved afterwards, both 



47 



