150 



Be it well understood 1 speak only of real steeplechase courses, such 

 as Aintree, Punchestown, Fairyhouse, Leopardstown, and Sandown ; 1 

 certainly do not allude to billiard-table courses, like Cork Park, which 

 have been introduced of late years with their two-mile races, for suchr 

 in my opinion, are not steeplechases at all. Anyhow we cannot com- 

 pare them, for horses long ago were never raced over such places. 



Assuredly the steeplechasers of the present day lack the stamina and 

 staying powers of the old ones, and if they go as fast it is because they 

 have light, smooth, and level courses. A sorry time would they have 

 over the old heavy and uneven fields where speed and endurance were 

 maintained. Speed over flat, artificial ground, but without endurance^ 

 is the usual order of to-day. 



No doubt there are some few exceptions ; for instance, Eoyal Meath, 

 Cloister, and Cornea way. They are quite capable of stretching the neck 

 of any horse that ever went a steeplechase. But are they not all 

 Irishmen ? 



Some short time ago I cut from a newspaper a notice which I intended 

 to reproduce in these pages, for it appeared to me to be about the best 

 on the subject I ever read. It was a description of the sort of horse 

 best calculated to win a Grand National. Unfortunately I mislaid the 

 cutting and I forget what paper it came from. However, in substance 

 it was as follows : The horse we want for a long steeplechase like the 

 Grand National is one that can keep going on after he is beaten. The 

 pace at which that race is run and the severity of the course causes the 

 unsound and unfit horses to crack up, even if they don't fall, before half 

 the journey is gone. It is only then that the real struggle leg ins. By 

 degrees others drop off beaten. One horse, how^ever, has been going 

 great guns and bang in front all the way until within a mile of home. 

 He is well bred, well "balanced," in perfect condition, gallops with 

 freedom, jumps without undue loss of power, and he is well ridden. 

 However, when coming along the canal he feels the pinch, and at the 

 racecourse he shows clear evidence of being beaten. His place is taken 

 by another horse full of running, and who then appears to have the 

 race at his mercy. Nevertheless the other keeps pegging away after 

 him. The leader, equally well ridden, has not the same high creden- 

 tials as the other, and before the last hurdle is reached he, too, gets 

 beaten, and through some loose screw, shuts up within the next 

 hundred yards hopelessly so. Then comes on our struggling friend and 

 gamely wins his race, although he was beaten half a mile before the 

 other horse. 



When making comparisons between past and present steeplechase 

 arrangements, I overlooked one item, possibly from the fact that a 

 comparison could not be drawn. I speak of the reporter for the Press. 



Thirty years ago the proprietor of an Irish newspaper never dreamt 

 of sending a representative to our meetings, and when reference was 

 given it was in very skeleton style. In like manner were all branches 

 of sport neglected by the Press. Needless to remark we had no journal 

 devoted solely to sport, while in England there were only The Field 



