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STEEPLECHASING IN FAVOR ABROAD. Stccplechasing has never been as extensively engaged in in this country as in England, Ireland and" France, where they have cross-country sport the year around! The prizes offered abroad are not only numerous, but substantial, some of them running more than 0,000 to the winner, and the incentive to put a better class of horses in training for this sort of racing is therefore greater than in America. Hurdle racing is quite the thing in France, where they think nothing of giving 0,000 or more for a crack flat liorse and putting him over the sticks. It is particularly the smart thing during the winter months, and some of our American turfmen, notably Joseph E. Widencr of Philadelphia, Herman B. Dur-yea and Thomas Hitchcock of Long Island and Aiken, have been represented on the French courses for. the last two years. Frank J. Gould and Harry La Slontague are other Americans who have recently begun to race over the timber In France. The Liverpool Grand National is, of course, the prize which every man who races over timber abroad liopes to capture. It is the blue ribbon of steeple-chasing, just as the Derby is the most coveted trophy of English flat racing, and the course over which It is decided is the most severe in the world, a tremendous test of endurance and courage on the part of horses and men, for the rider must be as thoroughly fit as his mount to last through the four miles and S50 yards which constitute the course. It was first run for in 1S39, and tremendous fields start as a rule, no fewer than thirty-two going to the post in 1S50. and the same number in 1909. The Irish sportsmen have had splendid luck in winning this classic, and on a number of occasions the glory of the victory has been shared in no small measure by them, Garrett Sloore and the Beasleys earning their laurels in hard-fought battles races which you can hear run over again on the Curragh of Kildarc any line morning by the sharp-faced shrewd-looking men of middle age who gallon their horses there. Liberator, Comeaway, Father O Flynn, Cloister, Slanlfcsto and Drogheda are names to con jure with. A remarkable fact In connection with the race is that in the seventy-two years it has been run it has been won by horses six years old or over no fewer than sixty-two times. Now a horse in the United States and Canada is generally considered as having seen his best days before he is six years old. and there is a lesson to bo derived from the fact that many of the Grand National winners have been over twelve years of age. Irishmen as a rule grow wildly enthusiastic over the "leppers," as they style them, and there was a time when all the best riders of steeplechasers in 1 1lls country were Irishmen. Sleany. Nolan, Hyland, Canavan, Kinney, Owens, Slara and Donohue are a few of the knigjits of the pigskin born in Ireland, or in this country of Irish parents, whoso horsemanship has been admired. The daring required seems to be innate in them, and when their blood was up they stopped at nothing. There was a time when complaints were made that the obstacles over which our steeplechasers were run were too high, but there is no more of that, as it has become pretty thoroughly understood that there is a great deal more danger from low jumps than stiff ones. A horse has some intelligence and if he knows he has to jump high in order to clear an obstacle he will after one or two mishaps be sure not to try brushing through It, as is, invariably done when the fences are of flimsy material and are not well built. But stout as some of our fences are, and the Ontario Jockey Clubs course at Woodbine Park. Toronto, has the toughest on the American continent, we do not approach the field at Aintree, over which the Liverpool Grand National is run. The following list of. obstacles to be taken there would make the stoutest heart have some misgivings: 1 and 17 Thorn fence gorscd 4 feet 9 inches high, 2 feet wide. 2 and IS Thorn fence gorscd 4 feet 9 Inches high, 2 feet G inches wide. 3 and 19 Thorn fence gorscd 4 feet 11 Inches high, 2 feet wide, with ditch on take-off side 0 feet wide, 2 feet deep, banked up to guard rail 2 feet high in front of ditch. 4 and 20 Thorn fence gorsed 4 feet 11 inches high, 2 feet wide. 5 and 21 Thorn fence gorsed 4 feet ten inches high, 2 feet 3 inches wide. O and 22 "Bechers Brook." a thorn fence gorsed 4 feet 11 inches high. 3 feet wide: ditch on far side O feet 0 inches wide, 3 feet four Inches deep. 7 and 2C Thorn fence gorsed 4 feet 11 inches high, 2 feet C inches wide. S and 24 The "Canal Twin." a thorn fence gorsed 5 feet high. 2 feet C inches wide: ditch on take-off side 5 feet 9 inches wide, 2 feet deep, banked up to guard rail 2 feet high in front of ditch. t and 25 "Valentines .Brook." a thorn fence gorged 4 feet ten inches high, 3 feet 0 inches wide; a natural brook on the far side C feet O inches wide. 10 and 2C Thorn fence gorscd 4 fect 11 inches, high, 2 feet 9 inches wide. 11 and 27 Thorn fence gorsed 4 fect 10 inches high, 3 fect wide; ditcli on take-off side 0 feet wide, banked to guard rail 2 fect high. 12 and 2S Thorn fence gorsed 4 feet 10 inches high, 3 feet wide, ditch on the far side 7 feet wide, 3 feet deep. 13 and 29 Thorn fence gorsed 4 feet 9 inches high, 2 feet 3 inches wide. 14 and 30 Thorn fence gorscd 4 feet 9 inches high, 2 feet 3 inches wide. 1.1 The "Open Ditch." a thorn fence gorsed .1 feet 2 inches, high, 3 feet C inches. wide; ditch on take-off side 0 fect wide and banked to guard rail in front 2 feet high. 10 The "Water Jump." 10 feet wide, with thorn fence gorscd 3 feet high on take-off side. It is not to be wondered at that many contestants over such a course fall by the wayside. Tills year twenty-five of the twenty-six starters In the race fell before the course was finished. Yet year after year there are horses that start for this prize and finish with upward of 170 pounds in the saddle. Cloister won In 1S93, carrying 175 pounds, and Slani-festo accomplished the same feat with a like impost in 1S99. Rubio, the winner in 190S. -was foaled at the Rancho del Paso Stud of J. B. Haggin in California, but he was developed abroad. He carried but 145 pounds.
