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THE AUSTRALASIAN STEEPLECHASER Discussing the prospects of the winter jumping season in Australia the Australasian says We suppose there is no chance of getting back to the old stylo of steeplechasing Pace is everything nowadays and we do not breed the Inglcside Reindeer and Dutchman type of horse that did duty iu steeplechases before fences were brushed and padded and horses schooled over hurdles to make them Jump fast t fences Tom Corrlgan Inad ¬ vertently did his successors those who can ride a bad turn when he Introduced tlft brush and thus helped to place the bad rider on an equality with the good The idea was to mako horses stand well away from their fences As long as they dont hit in front not much harm can come was this way the little Irishman put it but he did not allow for the cutting down of fences There is no doubt that the greater the pace and the lower the fence the more accidents The change has certainly not brought about an improvement in the horses Perhaps there is no help for that You cannot make people go in for trying to breed the kind of horse we had steeplechasing thirty years ago Apart from that there seem to be no suc cessors to Panic King Alfred Morris Dancer Leap Year Suowden Glorious Boolka Wellington and a few other horses which sired so many good jumpers in their day No particular horse can now be pointed to as si sire of jumpers
