Mr. Joseph Widger 



to finish the rest of the journey without one. I managed to 

 win, however, and the reception I received was only second to 

 the Wild Man's National. That may be said to have opened 

 my career in Ireland, where subsequently I won nearly every 

 big steeplechase that was to be won. As time went on my 

 whole ambition was to ride the winner of the Grand National, 

 and I knew the only way to do it was to buy a good horse, and 

 this I laid myself out for. I bought the Wild Man from Borneo 

 in December, 1893, and told the gentleman I bought him from 

 that my object was to win the Liverpool with him. At this he 

 laughed, observing at the same time, * One thing you can depend 

 upon, and that is the little horse will jump the country.' I ran 

 him that month at Leicester on a Friday, when he won in a ^ 

 canter, and I ran him again in the ;^500 steeplechase at 

 Nottingham, when, after a great race, he beat Mr. Purefoy's 

 Grigon a head. The following March I ran him in the Grand 

 National and got third, and feel sure that if I had known what 

 a horse he was I would have won the race that year. After 

 that we brought him to our own home in Waterford, and kept 

 him there until October, when we sent him back to Alfreston, 

 where my brother Michael and I had taken up our quarters, and 

 we laid ourselves out to win the big race in real earnest. There 

 were two Grand National horses in the stable at the time, 

 Father O'Flynn and the Wild Man, and the late Mr. Gatland 

 told all his friends that Father O'Flynn was the best horse of 

 the pair ; but, as a matter of fact, the two horses were never 

 once galloped together, my brother and I having made up 

 our minds from the first to train the Wild Man entirely our- 

 selves, and allow no one to share in the glory of the victory 

 we so confidently anticipated. Many are the queer incidents I 

 could relate of that Friday night ! 



" After winning the Blue Ribbon of steeplechasing, which 



473 



