58 



It is strange that with such an uncle and such brothers Lord* 

 Waterford never cared for racing, but on the contrary he hates it. 

 However, in 1870, the first year of his Mastership, he instituted the 

 Curraghmore Hunt Steeplechases, purely to give a day or two's 

 sport to the farmers of his hunting country. They were held at 

 Ballydurn for that and the next year. That fixture was, however, 

 inconvenient, and a more suitable course was selected in 1872, at 

 Williamstown, near the City of Waterford, and over it our annual 

 festival was held until the hunting was stopped. 



The Stakes ranged from i'50 to £300 and for some years the 

 Meeting was a two days affair. As it was I who had the practical 

 management under Lord Waterford's direction, it is not for me to 

 speak much of it, but its success and popularity are well known in 

 history. Sufiice it now to say that it afi:brded sport and amuseuient,. 

 while it caused annually a circulation of money in the City of Water- 

 ford and its neighbourhood of thousands upon thousands of pounds. 



As I say in my chapter on Hunting, it was the Curraghmore that 

 revived red-coat racing in Ireland, and it was on the 1st May,, 



1873, we had our first scivey in pink between the flags at Williams- 

 town. Oh, what sport it was ! How well do I remember the brilliant 

 way old Mainsail carried me over our beautiful natural course, and 

 how he would have won, only for Captain Slacke on Crocus and 

 Jimmy Dobbyn on J.P. going before us at the finish ! The good old 

 horse had the wrong man up that day, and no mistake. 



This chapter and my allusion to the Curraghmore meetings would 

 indeed be incomplete were I to omit the particulars of a race which 

 caused more interest in our county than ever did another before 

 or since, and^which will be remembered during the existence of every- 

 one who was alive at the time within fifty miles of Waterford. 



This was "The Brothers' Eace," and it took place on the SOih ApriU 



1874, at the annual meeting of the Curraghmore Hunt Steeplechases, 

 Lords Charles, William, and Marcus Beresford had a sweepstakes of 



100 sovs. each, p.p., three miles, over the Williamstown Course, twelv^e 

 stone each, owners up. Lord Charles rode Nightwalker, a black 

 thoroughbred horse, and bred by Billy Power, the sporting tenant 

 of the course ; Lord William rode Woodlark, a grey mare ; and Lord 

 Marcus was on a bay gelding called The Weasel. They eajh wore the 

 Beresford Blue, Lord Charles with the ancestral black cap, while the 

 others had white and blue caps as distinguishing emblems. 



No racecourse in Ireland, except Punchestown and Fairyhouse, 

 ever had more people on it than Williamstown had on that, the most 

 memorable day in its annals. Old men and women who had never 

 before seen a race came fifty miles to see the Brothers' Ptace. Xot a 

 person, except the too aged and incapacitated, was in a farmhouse 

 within ten miles of the course, while the city was as deserted as if 

 plague-stricken— all, all flocked to Williamstown. Excitement rose 

 to boiling pitch as the three brothers filed out of the enclosure and 



