Mr. Albert H. Ripley 



Albert Ripley only seems to have faced the Starter on two 

 occasions in the Grand National, namely, in 1891, in the race 

 won by Come Away, when he rode Mr. H. Wotton's Adelaide, 

 who started at the forlorn odds of 200 to i, and 1894, when 

 Why Not won, on which occasion he rode M. J. C. Levene's 

 Calcraft, who, starting at 100 to i, fell at Becher's Brook the 

 first time round. 



In the Grand National Hunt Steeplechase of 1895, which, 

 owing to a frost having intervened, was run that year at San- 

 down Park instead of Hurst Park, as was originally intended, 

 Mr. Ripley had the leg-up on Alibanum (4 yrs., 10 st. 10 lbs.), 

 belonging to Mr. Arthur Yates, but could only get third to 

 Fin-ma-coul, ridden by Mr. F. B. Atkinson, who, starting at 

 7 to 4, won by two lengths, double that distance separating 

 second and third. 



On that occasion there were fifteen runners, the largest 

 field, with one exception, since 1879. 



Apart from his performances in public, innumerable stories 

 are told of Mr. Albert Ripley's feats in the saddle, in the 

 hunting-field and elsewhere, one of which may be worthy 

 of mention here. 



On one occasion at a meet of the Household Brigade 

 Draghounds, near Windsor, a stranger — to all appearance 

 indifferently mounted — turned up at the meet, and astonished 

 everybody by taking the lead the moment the hounds were 

 laid on, and, what was more to the purpose, keeping it to the 

 bitter end, in spite of all opposition. 



This was bad enough, but when, after the usual interval, 

 during which the members of the Hunt had mounted a fresh 

 horse apiece, the hounds were laid on once more, and the 

 stranger — still on the same animal — for the second time "cut 

 'em all down, and hung 'em up to dry " as the saying is, the 



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