Mr. ROBERT S. WALKER 



In the late sixties and seventies of the past century, the 

 saddling paddock at Aintree on the Grand National day 

 would have been considered incomplete without the presence 

 therein of the tall, erect figure of the well-known horseman 

 who forms the subject of this sketch. 



The first time Mr. Walker ever rode in public was in 

 the Hunt Steeplechase at Doncaster in 1852, which he won 

 on a horse called Dandy Jim, with whose dam he had won 

 a private steeplechase sweepstakes some years previously. 

 Dandy Jim, who was bred by Mr. Walker, senior, fell 

 lame and had to be fired, but got all right again, and was 

 purchased jointly from their father for ;^8o, by his two 

 sons, Robert and George, who, not being able to raise the 

 whole of the money at the time, were allowed to pay the 

 balance when he had won a race. After Doncaster, he con- 

 tinued his victorious career, and was eventually sold to H. 

 Lamplough to go to France, where he won several good 

 steeplechases. 



Of the steeplechase horses owned and ridden by Mr. 

 Robert Walker during his career in the saddle, the best 

 were Snowstorm, Yorkshireman, Cortolvin, Tom Tom, Key- 

 stone, Hailstone, and Bridegroom. 



On the first named, with whom his name will always be 

 most associated, he won the big steeplechase at the Edgbaston 

 Hunt meeting on three consecutive occasions, viz. 1869, 1870, 

 and 1 87 1. Snowstorm, with his owner in the saddle, ran 

 unsuccessfully in the Grand National of 1871, when The Lamb 

 won for the second time ; and again the following year, on 



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