Major William Trocke 



United Service Plate, Bishopscourt Plate, Kildare Hunt Cup, 

 Kildare Hunt Plate, and Prince of Wales' Plate. Among the 

 best of my own horses were Gamecock, who jumped thirty-three 

 feet over the last fence in the Military Plate, Newbridge, 1876, 

 the distance being measured by two people quite independently 

 of each other ; Flag of Truce, winner of twelve races ; Brown 

 Betty, winner of seven races, including the Irish Grand National 

 — this mare was unfortunate on several occasions, having fallen 

 after jumping the last fence when winning the Kildare Hunt 

 Plate at Punchestown, and again in meeting the best chaser 

 of modern times — Nona — in the Downshire Plate, to whom 

 she ran second, giving him 18 lbs. — Cutty Sark, Anna Maria, 

 Kilmachree, Lady Sarah, Tawny Girl, Outlaw, and many 

 others. My last winner, and one of my best, was The 

 Countess, on whom I won seven races, including at Punches- 

 town the Drogheda Stakes, 1901, Kildare Hunt Plate, 1902, 

 and the Prince of Wales' Plate, 1904. 



** Of late years I only rode my own horses and those of a 

 few old friends, for one of whom, the late H. S. Crother, I won 

 nine consecutive races in 188 1-2, on Lady Wolseley, in the 

 last of which Cyrus, ridden by Harry Beasley, was second; and 

 as he occupied the same place in the following Grand National, 

 a head behind Seaman, I should evidently have had a good 

 look in for the latter race had not an accident, while in training 

 for it, necessitated her being put to stud. 



" On looking back over the past fifty years of Irish steeple- 

 chasing, the contrast between the early fifties of the last century, 

 when I began to ride, and the present day is very marked. 

 Those were the days of two-mile heats when, owing to the 

 practice of what was called 'swithing a heat,' horses often 

 ran eight or ten miles before a race was decided. The 

 courses were often laid over the stiffest line that could be 



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