Gentlemen Riders 



Alec Fraser went straight through the middle of the fence. 

 Again, strange to say, he did not fall, although he made a hole 

 through the big fence you could walk through. No power, 

 however, would induce him to face Becher's Brook, where he 

 kept refusing until Chair of Kildare had passed the winning 

 post. This year Captain Yardley won three races on a horse 

 called Knocklong, and won races at nearly all the meetings 

 round Cheshire, some of his own hunters. In one three-mile 

 steeplechase at Wirral Hunt, riding a four-year-old, first time 

 out, his stirrup-leather broke at the first fence, but catching it 

 as the iron slipped off, he rode the race and won, and, thanks to 

 having carried the leather, just drew the weight. 



Riding to the post for the Ladies' Purse at Tarporley on 

 his b.g. Martial, by Victor II., a capital hunter, but with which 

 he had little hope of winning, a brother officer who was also 

 riding his own horse, assured him that his mount was a good 

 thing, that he had backed it heavily, and persuaded him to 

 have ;^5 on. Approaching the last fence they both perceived 

 that a horse called Scalemorebotha must win, and it also had 

 been well backed. So disgusted was his friend that he only 

 rode half-heartedly, and Captain Yardley beat him on the post 

 by a head for second place. On coming to scale Captain 

 Yardley perceived the rider of Scalemorebotha could not draw 

 the weight, although the connections protested that he was 

 all right. The clerk of the scales was nearly bluffed, but 

 an exclamation from the rider of the second made him careful, 

 and after a great bother at the scales Scalemorebotha was 

 disqualified and the unbacked Martial became the winner. 



He had previously been asked to ride Scalemorebotha, 

 and it transpired afterwards that the jockey being mounted 

 hurriedly, the weight-cloth had been open or rotten, and some 

 of the lead dropped out in consequence. 



;6 



33^ 



