Gentlemen Riders 



CAPTAIN ARTHUR J. SMITH 



Of the many fine horsemen sent forth by our cavalry at 

 various times to do battle for them on the racecourse, we 

 think — nay, feel sure — that all will agree, that never has that 

 branch of the Service been more ably represented, either on 

 our steeplechase courses or in the hunting-field, than by the 

 popular sportsman whose career in the saddle we now 

 describe. 



Captain Arthur J. Smith, familiarly known to his inti- 

 mates as "Doggie," was born in February, 1840, and after 

 completing his education at Rugby — a school which has 

 harboured many a good sportsman — ^joined the Carabineers 

 in 1858, the regiment being in India at the time. 



Arrived there, the sporting young cornet was not long 

 in making his mark as a gentleman rider, and there being 

 no professional jockeys, except natives, in India in those 

 days, his services, as a consequence, were soon at a premium. 

 Returning home with his regiment in i860, he inaugurated 

 auspiciously what was destined to be one of the most success- 

 ful careers as a gentleman rider ever known, not only in 

 England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in France and Germany 

 as well, by winning a steeplechase at Warwick on a mare 

 named Cockatoo. 



If ever there was a horseman in this world whom one 

 would have imagined it would have been safe to book in 

 advance as the rider of a Grand National winner, surely 

 Captain Smith was that man. Luck, however, was against 

 him in this particular instance, for though there was not a 

 single important steeplechase you could mention in the Calendar 



126 



