SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



The present National course is twice round 

 the Aintree course, making a total length of 

 about 4^ miles, and the competitors have to take 

 fourteen of the jumps twice, the water and the 

 open ditch being taken only once during the 

 race. Altogether there are thirty obstacles to be 

 negotiated before the winning-post is reached, 

 and the severity of the course is shown by the 

 fact that, out of the great number of starters, 

 those that finish may usually be counted on the 

 fingers of two hands. 



There are several things worth recording in 

 connexion with the Grand National Steeple- 

 chase, and they may be stated briefly. No horse 

 has ever won more than twice. Of these there 

 are only five, and two of this number have won 

 in successive years, namely Abd-el-Kader in 1850 

 and 185 1, and The Colonel in 1869 and 1870. 

 Mr. J. G. Bulteel's Manifesto won the race 

 twice, and besides doing this he no less than 

 three times finished in the first three ; the last 

 time he ran he was seventeen years old. Of the 

 riders who have won more than twice G. Stevens 

 heads the list with five wins, and on two occasions 

 he rode the winner in successive years, in 1863 

 and 1864, and in 1869 and 1870. The race in 

 1907 is noteworthy for the fine performance of 

 A. Newey, the rider of Eremon, the winner. 

 Going into the country for the second round he 

 had the misfortune to lose a stirrup leather. This 

 was caused by a riderless horse which interfered 

 with him for the rest of the race, and ultimately 

 finished almost with him. When one looks at 

 the enormous jumps, and remembers that owing 

 to the riderless horse he had to take most of the 

 jumps sideways, one is able to estimate this great 

 achievement at its full value. 



The Grand National Steeplechase is worth 

 3,000 sovs., including a trophy value 

 125 sovs. It is a handicap for five-year- 



olds and upwards. The conditions of the race 

 were a little altered in 1906, and they now read 

 as follows : — ' A winner, after publication of the 

 weights (last Tuesday in January), of a handicap 

 steeplechase of three miles and a half or over, to 

 carry 4 lb. extra ; no penalties for horses originally 

 handicapped in this race at 1 1 st. or over.' 



Before this, horses handicapped at 12 st. or 

 over were exempt, and in 1907 the race was run 

 for the first time under the new condition. It 

 was a good move, as owners now are not afraid to 

 enter their horses for other 'chases, knowing that 

 in the event of winning no extra penalty will be 

 incurred, if they were originally in for the 

 National at 1 1 st. or over. 



The Great Lancashire Steeplechase, which is 

 run at Manchester, is a very different race from 

 the Grand National ; the distance is 3^ miles, 

 and the jumps are not nearly so stiff. 



The Manchester course is more a galloping 

 course than Aintree, and it is the exception in- 

 stead of the rule, as at Aintree, for horses to fall. 

 This is a course that is more suited to horses 

 which, so to speak, chance their fences, and this 

 is probably the reason why Grand National 

 horses do not do well here. Several of them are 

 seen out for the race, and amongst the number 

 generally the National winner; yet only twice 

 in the history of the race has the Aintree hero 

 proved successful. 



In 1907 Eremon won the Lancashire Steeple- 

 chase with almost as much ease as he did the 

 Grand National. It was very strange to see the 

 horse jumping this course after seeing him per- 

 form at Aintree. There he took his fences as 

 if he understood that a touch meant disaster, but 

 at Manchester he brushed through his jumps, 

 as if he knew he could do so with impunity. 

 The only other horse to win the dual distinction 

 was Ilex in the year 1890. 



POLO 



The game of polo is but little played in Lan- 

 cashire, and of the only two clubs in existence, 

 the Liverpool and the Manchester, the latter has 

 now joined forces with the Bowdon Club, whose 

 ground is in Cheshire. The Liverpool Club was 

 founded by the late Mr. Hugh Gladstone in the 

 autumn of 1872, when polo in England was still 

 in its infancy. The officers of the regiment 

 stationed in those days at Liverpool took no little 

 interest in the game, and played at Childwall on 

 the ground of the Liverpool Polo Club. Some 

 of the officers were included in the teams that 

 the Liverpool Club sent to Lillie Bridge when 

 that place was looked on as the head quarters of 

 polo. After a few years, however, the polo-spirit 

 waned, and the Liverpool Club ceased to exist, 

 though a few of the members kept the game alive 

 at Lark Hill. 



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In 1885, however, the club rose phoenix-like 

 from its ashes, and to Mr. W. Lee Pilkington, its 

 secretary for many years after, the present 

 Liverpool Polo Club owes its renaissance. 

 The idea originated at a dinner at the Liverpool 

 Racquet Club. The terms of a match between 

 two ponies were being discussed, when Mr. 

 Pilkington suggested that the polo club should 

 be restarted. Several of those present fell in 

 with the proposal, and he, knowing that no 

 time was like the present, took down the names 

 of those acquiescing, and the existence of the 

 Liverpool Polo Club was a fait accompli. The 

 club since those days has prospered greatly, and 

 is now the largest county club in England. 



It now consists of fifty members, to which 

 number it is limited, but besides these there are 

 over two hundred honorary members who pay 

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