Chapter V. 

 STEEPLECHASING WITHOUT TEARS. 



I was once rung up very early one morning by 

 Captain Loewenstein. He said : *' I wish you 

 would go down to Cheltenham to-day, Bert, and 

 buy me the best horse you can that has some chance 

 of winning the Grand National, So, of course, 

 I went and I came across Percy Whitaker who was 

 very much in the 'chasing world. He advised me 

 to try to buy Easter Hero, which I managed with 

 his help to do. I agreed to give 7,000 for him and 

 another 3,000 if he won. He was in a ;£500 race 

 later in the day, but I took him out of it as I felt 

 if, by chance, he got beat I should not look to have 

 spent Captain L's. money very well and if he won 

 the ;£500 race it would not count for much. 



I let Percy Whitaker have him to train, and I 

 went down and saw him do some work over fences. 

 I never saw a horse skim over them at such a pace 

 as he did without hitting them. So I went with 

 Capt. Loewenstein to Liverpool to see him run. 

 It ended disastrously as he fell at the fence at the 

 canal turn. The jockey said it was the people on 

 the stand at the turn which put him off. I saw 

 the race with Captain Loewenstein from the Grand 

 Stand. No one could have behaved more sportingly. 



He never grumbled or uttered one word 



68 



