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NEW RULE AFFECTING STEEPLECHASING. New York. July 19. The National Steeplechase and Hunt Association has adopted a rule which 13 calculated to improve the cross-country sport next fall. Hitherto three-year-old fencers have been excluded from cross-country events in which four-year-olds and older horses participate. They have been compelled to run against each other altogether, which is, perhaps, one of the reasons they have been so backward in learning the game. Hereafter from the first of October on they will be permitted to race with the mature horses. The change is an eminently reasonable one, because under the American system of developing all classes of horses early, a steeplechaser is as good In the autumn of his three-year-old career as at any other time. Jumping with older horses Is calculated to expedite the development of the three-vear-ohl. because horses learn more readily by racing with animals that know the game than In any other way.
