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lamentable display we nearly always see in the Farmers' Race. Twenty 

 to thirty horses often start, but before two fields have been travelled 

 there is a long tail, and before the leaders pass the stand there are not 

 more than a third of the lot in the race ; and when it is won perhaps 

 .not more than half a dozen have gone the course. 



Objections are invariably lodged, which result generally in the dis- 

 qualification of the horse which came in first and often of the three 

 placed. In 1891 the race had to be declared " null and void," because 

 the first four horses were disqualified for one reason or other. Oddly 

 enough it was the best Farmers' Race I ever saw at Punchestown ; 

 horses went like racers and were ridden by men like jockeys. 



So uncertain is it that the horse which comes in first will be even- 

 tually declared the winner that the bookmakers stipulate specially for 

 this race, that they pay only on " first past the post." 



To reduce these difficulties an extra race of a more open character 

 was introduced in 1892. 



The present Earl of Clonmell follows his brother's good example and 

 .gives a large contribution to the stakes to be run for by the farmers. 

 Lord Otho Fitzgerald, late M.P. for Kildare, presented the Challenge 

 •Cup, value £50, some years ago, and with the addition of a hundred 

 guineas from the fund the Kildare farmers are dealt liberally with and 

 owe a debt of gratitude to their County Hunt. 



I am continually in the habit of bragging that I never missed a 

 Punchestown since 1861, and every year when leaving after the last race 

 on the second day I ask myself, will I ever see the historic spot again ? 



Alas, it makes an old habitue like myself bitterly sad to think of all 

 the fine men and dear friends he has seen and met within that enclo- 

 sure who are now gone for ever. If a man has friends in the world he 

 meets them at Punchestown, but then comes the time when they are 

 missed ! Such sad, and too-oft repeated experiences, make my visits 

 of late years very difi'erent indeed in enjoyment from what they were 

 long ago, and were it not that I should look upon missing Punchestown 

 as something approaching a personal calamity, I don't think I would go 

 there again. 



If some of those who have never been there will come, no matter how 

 experienced they may be in steeplechasing elsewhere, they will go away 

 with an opinion of tlie meeting similar to mine. To appreciate this to 

 the full, they should go early and walk the courses, and perhaps during 

 the day, go down to the Herd's Garden or Furry Hill to see how our 

 Irish horses can jump a double. 



With such an experience of Punchestown as I have had I can recall 

 incidents of various nature, so 1 may as well relate a few. I will 

 begin with one personal to myself. 



At no time of my life do I think I felt such pride and satisfaction 

 as I had when I got the leg-up on The Baron for the National Hunt 

 Steeplechase of 1862. I was smartly turned out in orthodox racing 

 toggery, which, as I mentioned in a former chapter, was not common 



