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WORLDS BIG STEEPLECHASE Reflections Based on Its Most Recent Running Its Winning a Task Beset With Difficulties The Bores Hon ¬ orable Part in the Race NEW YORK N Y March 27 There will be none to dispute the assertion that the Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase recently run at Aintree is decided over a course which calls for the supremest qualities of stamina in the horse and a correspond ¬ ing degree of pluck skill and endurance on the part of the rider The test is over a distance of four miles and Slid yards There are thirty ob ¬ stacles to be negotiated and many of them are so laxardous in character that a majority of the starters fail to finish the course courseThe The searching character of tlie test will be bet ¬ ter appreciated when It is stated that in Glensides year that horse alone of a field of twentyseven stood up at the finish On Saturday last the record field of thirtysix went to the post and only four finished There was satisfaction for American breeders nnd admirers of the thoroughbred in the knowledge that one of these was bred in this corntry and the further fact that The H ° re which ran second to Shaun Spaduh was also placed in tua Gratid National of 1920 is proof that the Ormondale gelding is a jumper of parts Like Cloiser Manifesto and other famous Irish jumpers which started for many Grand Nationals the latter took part hi eight of them He ought lir win one before his retirement retirementThe The IrNh know the crosscountry snort in all its angles Frank Gray Griswold in his interestins memoirs printed privately for distribution among his friends says that the first Grand National was run in l S3t but that the first steeplechase was run in Ireland in 1752 from Hutlevent church to the spire of St Legers ehurtJi in County Cork and that the novel race derived its name from the sportsmen taking part in it designating a distant church tower as the winning i ost Volumes have been written about the Irish horses and their riders which have achieved glory at Aintree Clois ¬ ter Manifesto Father OFlynn and Jerry H are names to conjure with withRIDING RIDING AND TRAINING FINE ART ARTThe The riding and training if steeplechasers lias long been regarded as a fine art abroad and as a consequence almost every running of tiie great race has found men of title and gentleman sportsmen of Kugland and Ireland in the saddle There were whole families in Ireland who devoted their lives to crosscountry siMirt Of such were the HeasJeys They were gentlemen and it is a matter of record that four brothers rode in the 0000 prize one year One of them Tommy took part in twelve Grand Nationals between IS71 and 18tl winning three of them Another Harry rode in every Grand National from 187 to 1889 and he had the satisfaction of both training and riding Come Away when that gooil gelding won the race in ISfll The quality of his horsemanship will l e accentuated when it is stated that at tlie age of lie he won the Kildare Hunt Cup at Iniiclitowii on his own horse General Saxham With such traditions to stimulate the sportsmen of the Em ¬ erald Isle it is not surprising that Ireland fur ¬ nishes the bulk of the winners of the greatest of the jumping races racesThere There was a time in tlie early history of the Grand National when horses that were not quite clean bred were able to win it None but the stoutest thoroughbred can live the pace at which it has been run these many years however and a horse must not only have the power to lift himself over the obstacles but possess the speed to with ¬ stand i challenge on the flat Some of the jumps like Hochers Hrook which is described as a thick thorn fence four feet ten inches high with a rail two feet high in front of a brook eight feet wide on tlie far side said brook having a depth of four feet and Valentines Hrook a thorn fence five feet high with a rail in front two feet high and a brook on the farther side are enough to test the stoutest heart in man or beast beastMOSTLY MOSTLY WON BY HOMEBREDS HOMEBREDSDuring During all the years of its running only three foreignbred horses have won the Grand National These were ICubio by Star Huby La Toquera by Sir Modred and the next dam Touche Pas by Spendthrift bred by the late J H Haggin at his Haiicho del Paso Stud in California which got home in front of twentythree rivals in 190S the French gelding Lutteur III in IIHKI and Moifaa from faraway New Zealand in 1901 Uubio found his way to l7urope from an overcrowded stud threat ¬ ened by hostile racing legislation and he was sold for 75 Later lie was developed as a hunter and changed hands for 475 Shortly before his real quality as a jumper was discovered he was regularly driven to a hotel bus at Towcoster TowcosterThere There is no available record of the price realized for The Hore which lias earned the reputation of being a safe jumper when he was sold in Kngland as one of a consignment of yearlings from the Hlne Hidge Stud of II T Oxnard of Virginia He is stoutly bred being by Ormondale a son of the SMfiOOOO Ormonde while his dam is Hettie Hramble by Hramble Mattie T by Hillet next dam Jac ¬ onet and next in order the renowned matron Macgie H H There are a lot of good race horses In this pedigree Kngland has had a touch of their quality in Iroquois the winner of their Derby Mattie T was the dam of Colonel Hill and Jac ¬ onet threw Sir Dixon and Helvidere HelvidereWhen When it is considered how few American horses have been trained for the National it is evident that our jumpers have shown up well J E Widcner has in Duettiste now in France a horse that ought to give a good account of himself at Aintree as lie is a bold fencer and has a lot of speed Wilh this son of Kthelbert and The Hore taking part in the contest next year tlie premier jumping event of the world might go to the credit of an Americanbred The Grand National has done much for the thor ¬ oughbred in Kngland and the French have their Grand Steeplechase de Paris for the improvement of tiie breed at Auteuil U is hoped that the flOOOO Hrook which will be run every year in the autumn at Helmont Park will have the same influence on the sport in this country countryThe The Hore was sold as a yearling in a consign ¬ ment sent to Kngland in 1912 by H T Oxnard and was bought by H Hotteril for 40 guineas or 20S loiter on he was again sold at auction that year to Sir H Wiimot for U5 guineas The latter raced him unsuccessfully for several years
