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judge's eye until Cortolvin, bred by Mr. Michael Dunne of Ballymanus, 

 did so with list. 13lb. in 1867. This is the highest weight ever carried 

 first past the post in the Xational up to and including 1892, The 

 little Lamb won the next year, and again in 1871. After that for 

 eight years our horses could do no better than run into places, but then 

 came their turn, and for four years in succession we carried away 

 the blue ribbon : The Liberator in 1879, Empress 1880, Woodbrook 

 1881, and Seaman in 1882. 



By the way, what grand Irish parentage The Liberator had, and 

 what a rattling ring there is in it— by Daniel O'Connell out of Mary 

 O'Toole ! He was owned and ridden by that fine horseman, my friend 

 Mr. Garrett Moore. 



We had then to wait for five years until Gamecock in 1887 brought 

 us again to the front. After that, from 1889 to '91, we won off the reel 

 with Frigate, Ilex, and Comeaway. 



Thus out of fifty-three races have the Irish horses a record of seven- 

 teen wins, while they ran into places no end of times. * 



Thus far for ancient history, now for the modern. 



I never owned a racehorse, and am not likely to do so ; but I truly 

 love racing, and, like most Irishmen, I love steeplechasing still more. 

 But the change has been so marvellous since I was a boy I feel con- 

 strained to describe it. 



Having been a regular race-going man for over thirty years, I have 

 attended nearly every meeting of importance in Ireland, and have seen 

 a great number in England. I never missed a Punchestown since 

 its re-formation in 1861, and for the twelve years of its existence I 

 managed our old Curraghmore meeting. I make these remarks to show 

 that I may fairly claim to know something about the subject I am 

 now going to tackle. 



In old times our meetings in Ireland were got up and carried out 

 in very rough-and-ready style. Those long established, like Cashel, 

 Tipperary, and Newcastle, had permanent stone stand-houses, but of the 

 most primitive construction, resembling lime kilns, and not much 

 larger. Indeed, I think the big hill overlooking Newcastle did duty 

 for its grand stand. They had no dressing-rooms ; the jockeys dressed 

 in a tent or the open air, and were weighed in the latter without a 

 particle of shelter. 



Piiders generally came to the meeting wearing their jackets, boots, and 

 breeches under their ordinary clothes, so that they had only to pull off 

 the latter to be ready to weigh out. I remember dressing — or rather 

 T^fzdressing— for a steeplechase under the lee side of a fence, in a 

 storm of wind and rain, while a friend held an umbrella over me ! 



The courses were laid out over a perfectly natural country; not 

 a single sod or stone would be removed nor a fence trimmed, and there 

 was no levelling of places where the going was bad. In fact, with the 



* See postscript for Cloister's win in 1893. 



