282 Steeple-Chasing 



crossing them — showed that knowledge of the real sport 

 which one cannot but admire. A man mounted on his 

 ow^n horse, set to perform a task like this, and performing 

 it successfully, awakens a sentiment of esteem which is 

 not extented to Saddlington, when one of his horses, a 

 failure on the flat wdiich looked like jumping, and has 

 been half schooled over fences, gets home in front of 

 three animals a shade worse than himself over two 

 miles of a modern steeple-chase course. 



Chasing used to be nearly allied to hunting ; now it 

 is a sort of offshoot of racing. We have seen how chases 

 were got up in the hunting-field, and how the consequence 

 was a struggle over so many miles of country — fair 

 hunting country, as a matter of course — and generally 

 'owners up.' But this sort of thing did not last. A 

 well-bred hunter doubtless held his owm in most cases 

 against a coarser- bred animal; but the thoroughbred 

 was superior to all. A man, we will say, had a horse 

 which disappointed him continually under Newmarket 

 rules. 



' What's to be done with him ? ' the owner says, when, 

 after having been fancied and backed, he has run third, 

 an outsider winning, with the first favourite second. 



' Well, sir, he's got a turn of speed, and he looks 

 like jumping. He might win a hurdle race,' his 

 trainer suggests. 



' See what you can do with him, then,' is the owner's 

 reply, and the disappointing one is put into schooling for 

 hurdles, or, if he jumps well but is not very speedy, for 

 the more advanced game over a country. 



This was what frequently happened just after it had 

 been discovered that an extended interest w^as being 

 taken in ' chasing,' that people would flock to a district 



