AND OTHER SKETCHES 85 



THE GREAT STEEPLECHASER MILESIAN. 



There never was a timber-topper in Canada that could 

 pile up the weight and stay with Milesian across four 

 miles of stiff country. 



I remember the day when over the McDougall farm, 

 back of the mountain at Montreal, he landed the double 

 event and carried confusion and dismay into the ranks 

 of the westerners whose wigs lay thicker on the green 

 than ever ornamented the sod of Donnybrook after its 

 liveliest ruction. At three o'clock he started in the open- 

 ing event, a light welter race, twenty-eight pounds added 

 to weight for age, the distance, three miles across coun- 

 try. He was ridden by his owner, and though no one 

 doubted his pluck, nobody had any faith in his riding 

 ability, and certainly it was only an extra good horse that 

 could have beaten the dozen good ones that started 

 against him, driven, as Milesian was, from start to finish, 

 his jockey riding with a. loose rein and unable to give him 

 the slightest assistance. The country raced over was a 

 very difficult one, over stone walls and stiff fences and 

 the last quarter of a mile through swampy ground suffi- 

 cient to stop any but the pluckiest of performers. 



Milesian won by over three hundred yards. Thirty 

 minutes after the winner of the light welter race had 

 been announced from the judges ' stand, the bell rang for 

 the starters in the Open Steeplechase, distance four miles, 

 and imagine the surprise of the crowd to see Mr. Banna- 

 tyne canter out on Milesian, though he had another rare 

 good one, Duffy, entered in the race, a horse which the 

 talent thought quite able to land the trick. Bannatyne, 

 however, was deaf to all his friends' entreaties and ex- 

 postulations; he was determined to try and beat the 

 record by winning the double event, and he was equally 

 determined to do the riding himself. As soon as Pool- 



