OTHER COUNTRY MEETINGS 169 



curious circumstance about the race, or rather about the 

 horses which take part in it, is that so many of them remain 

 sound enough to be kept in training until they are a dozen 

 years old or more. Good steeplechasers, like good hunters, 

 often last for eight or ten seasons, and, to give instances, 

 Gamecock was winning races when he was sixteen years old, 

 Roquefort and Why Not each ran in the Grand National at 

 thirteen, the latter being that age when he won in 1887, 

 Cloister was ten years old when he won, and Frigate had 

 taken part in the race four times before she was success- 

 ful in 1889. As for that wonderful horse Cloister, he 

 was rising twelve when he accomplished his marvellous 

 feat in the Sefton Steeplechase to which allusion has been 

 made. 



The Grand Nationals of 1899 and 1900 have been of 

 a somewhat sensational character, and in each of them a 

 fine performance was achieved by a really high-class horse. 

 In 1899 Manifesto, who had won in 1897 under n st. 3 Ibs., 

 equalled Cloister's record by carrying 12 st 7 Ibs. to victory. 

 He did not, however, spreadeagle his field in the Cloister 

 fashion, and between the last two fences he went through 

 a protracted struggle with the five-year-old Ambush II., who 

 up to that point was holding a very rosy chance. This was 

 the crucial point of the race, and when the younger horse 

 dropped away beaten, Manifesto had matters all his own 

 way in the run home. Ambush II. was not persevered with 

 after his jockey found that he could not beat Manifesto, and, 

 being eased up, finished seventh. 



It should be mentioned that Ambush II. is owned by the 

 Prince of Wales, and after his gallant fight when a five-year- 

 old he came to be generally considered as a future Grand 

 National winner. In 1900, however, he was handicapped at 

 1 1 st. 3 Ibs., so that he was asked to meet Manifesto on 

 9 Ibs. worse terms than what they had run at a year before. 

 The task, even allowing for the natural improvement which 

 the Prince's chaser would make from five to six years old, 

 seemed a heavy one, but the horse showed capital form on 

 the few occasions of his running during the winter, and in 

 the race he fairly turned the tables on his conqueror of 



