NATIONALS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18456, 10 August 1925, Page 9

NATIONALS.

i® THE BEGINNING.

the first Winner. L ■ ••• ■■ {• i ' ; ' (By-Wayfarer). carries mo Wfe to a du Jijty afternoon in the later soventie ipA trafnped down from my host j/dO&t 'half a dozen miles away, to tl 0 i tussock and gorse lyin K b< tlf&n the city and tho sea, the Ljgftrti as the Sandhills, to get wh* tji# ■ t- oottid on "foot out of a meet t I {]£ kCKrietchuroh hounds. Th© oth« juy- fa-search of tho old atmosphere hopelessly in my attempt to at present to tho past. irtftidtr of the city had obliterated th landmarks. Tt tOßfidck and tho gorse had gone, makin W for homes and bonny gai Jjftg;' tho. great tiderwashod draini jjut njight havo buried a score c Itdttfcl and their risers, had disappeai I] fend the broom-thatched cowshe «i&e& mftfked the limit of eivilisatio: t ' Awjfftayed tho disfiguring hand o tnaj», 'iv-as there no more. tbo scene was easily reconstruct ' e&j Oh dull afternooil th coming up sharply from th iMjjtini fort Hms stood out in sombr MM from A background of beclouds Wufti'pd away in the far distance th SoOWierfi Alps wore their winte ntantla., it 6eemed, down to their \ er f^..Frost lingered in the shadow o th& gone and the air was keen and td'yottth, exhilarating. Frts^ntly' two horsemen loft thi cowman's beaten track. made thei: way to tbo little mound from which . was surreyiog the country and ro • reokd themselves as Frank Urittan r df the Hounds on K(jy ; il&< tbe. tdnnef of the first Grand Na * ' tional, and Horry Lunn, the pnnce o iihooling flWitors, on Fakir, the win Sr;<>ftEo#co?d. [iord Fredeno Ham .jltyrt (n dßfl of his dolißhtful reminis- . cenwS'TeatiU bpw' tiic yoiinc atfcaclie i: lifted into the seventh. heavy by be ! dritfilßted 'with tho secrets of his Embassy, -• 1 can imderstand exactb how the flattered buddhlg ambassadoi ieels. Bob Vallatiee was late ,iritis the hounds, and for half an houi . ■ tho Ma'iter: and the Mentor chattel with me just, as if J. knew as inu . cl: liUntirip and steepleClMtfiflg 88'lbey did; Ab Lord Frederic gays M his own experience, there is 46m'ethil)i peculiarly fascinating; to a ltd of twenty lMiog treated as a a&d Where. ■ flfcat litintlng has noth tag V>'4o tridi njr Story, cxcepi fbttit H aisociated with the beginning of tny intimacy with, two friends whose l Btoris of IWSaolleJstuJßi: and icxpcricncc: ever BUIQ9 bare., itpw at piy . disposal Whan Bob Vullande did put in an ap pearance, :thc hopds . quickly A\-erc away oi* a burnlug saent, with Royalty ai)d Pakir at their heels looking ahead for..the big .places ill the' fences, anr bjr lue'edlag fropi one vautage-point tc anotber. I masaged to see some of the of the. sport. . A drag Ayas good mough for me'iif those times, particu Utty whwt I happened to be on foot and rthe line lay. . "Mention of my experiences on thai I aifternoon i .imviseiog- the <itlu(»f day iii the de . Ipfitifal vein that co.iies so naturally tc ' : ™_goodvßportaman and the lover oi !jjMN< It waa easy, with scarcely t |mtal reservation, to agree with him ' waa the . most, super); that ever had crossed the Na country, ■ and having conceded at ' ■ ffl®^ r ® 1011 terms witl - ••■JpteM owner, . The little horso waf & S- divethlll at Hawkeaj- , the most hospitable of homes, as |j-j» i» tap Awuri I wai I _ ;t6ld,.apd |r,v 7 £ro ® » mare " said M filep-leggedj ® t.v ? 1 *{¥w l&e itafa t^. v p* ,-youtng ? fiWW jfteutjii- or -one v other Australian States for the greater tbeir shippers. Far be it from H W snggest that such a bar-ainister t M4des tfee escutchgoA of our gallant , , Kffle hero, but efforts tp obtain dofinite ' conc eming his dam have W«|n in tho usual station fashion, ' t«#hyiing' on the |!apt Coast hills and SSTOMJ a ? 5. Btatiett hack, the future Mttonal winner was sold to Dick Rich- » jockeytrainer of the time, for • won n steeplechase at Lin- ' "SPv tlw assistance of Dan 0 'Brien «»4dle. ' sSfu '• 4'Bp«rtin< <3astble. tK & S funny how he came into my , ay friend went on to My, as ii ,/f - o£ is good fcrrtuneffad onlv V4|!W,^ cc ? Ire d to him. "Some of us re- , a . meet at West Melton Iy-ijuiking over such fences as out why, when 0. P. Williams bad luck to stako Jiib mount^ lent him by Alfred Cardale, M we called -himj as. a. tribute ingthy limbs and the good use i of them. Knowing Cardale ccept no money compensation, ned to buy a horse to replace rtunato Barty, and at last we of Royalty, who had passed hands of C. it, O'Connor, who sthing to do with tho railways, er going to Cardale's place the low disappeared, vanished altond nb trace of him was found plo of years. 1 was then farmSpringston, and at a sale at a neighbour, of .mine, Harry ae, told me he believed he had iale's lost horse running in the iverbed., I went ever to W,iiytold Cardale of Waahburne's t'he said he was tired of wildafter the horso. Ie end he offered to play me es of euchro in which the f recovering Royalty should be ) and a five-pound note mine, ad .(Jardale, good sporting soul Always was, straightway sent »f> his cadets, who knew Roy■t to look at tho* stray horse. >t, by the way, was 'Monty' ho afterwards raced with some i the North Island and allowed rien to purchase that wonderd little mare Rubina out of a race at Ric,carton for 100 Dan getting more than, his »ek the' same afternoon. The s Royalty, sure enough, and promptly handed him over Cardale and 1 arranged 1 to--1 enter him for the Grand —the first Grand Nationalknow what happened. I't say Royalty was such a orse as Gloaming has provod ® be, but he did scores of earning never could. I hunted eight seasons, and he never t a fence nor gavo me a fall, id in ten jumping races and once ont of a place, and on Bion lost, his rider through no his own. He won four races •ecoad in five, The Agent beatthree, times, and Clareaice and mus each once. Yes, I an p have owned Royalty and m, than I should have been loaming.*' I. Galaxy r of Talent. jad has. seen many Grand and retains recollections ef He picks out the good horses [fidence and discrimination, g that the shortening of the

distance in 1891 and the gradual increase in tlie pace at which tho race is run have made a comparison between the old. and the new extremelv difficult. He still thinks, however, that ?t. and Canard, who won over the longer journey—The Agent threetimes—would be very hard to beat under any reasonable weight to-dav. He would add Clarence and Mangaohane to tho list of good performers over the four-mile coarse, and would class Kosciusko and Moody as the worst of that generation. Faugh-a-Ballagh, ho thinks, was a freak horse, Something like Oakleigh of the present oay and marvels that while Faugh-a-Ballagh holds tho time record for the four nules, Oakleigh holds the record tor the three miles and a-half. He ft ? Tomm y Lyford in thinking Jii was a be aten horso when he icon the second fence from homo in 1890 and let up Daddy Longlega to wm at- his leisure by any number of it*? ° m Darnle J'- Mutiny, he ae- ' a i n e * traordin arily good little horse—" almost as brilliant a fencer as ltOyalty, and faster, but not such a "fhrn, k U3 t T B . ta y er " and Norton, thpugfi lacking their quality an<f s d ,r lou /" h ° atoits to th« £ gent and Canard. Among the_ other winners that have left him Awa», P ® aß £- nt memories ar e The Guard, To Arai, Bercola, Master callan^lo nd Coali^ ion > among the gallant losers such good horses as U aF& r * M ° ifaa - a Kaitere. 8 oritv * P r °sent-day riders, our authcoSo tht • th "Of owner* w, J°ckey and trainers and know their jobs better than I ioii +i? P resssd for an opinlfeU ?W V ubjeet - " but 1 can,t be* thl%i arguments in favour of f Beat T on , flat hold good turos hT a 'fh Juclgin ~ from tho P;cridfl J" tt the Papers, cfosa-country r , w ith considerably ridpr* a f rru P s than cross-country reaflin ?i. f r fi' 8 ,? gather from my [v*r hat the ? fall off les s fteqaentnot Posine as an expert matters and I suppose that so lone as tho trainers and the owners J will have their *-? v V - ce has been my friend's besetting sin.

Back and Beyond. ft name written large iu lo=T T o tt>r y of Canterbury. Mr Joseph Brittan sab i n tho first Prt>tativo >U +K ' a A,-, t^10 chosen represenlt«n . • t h ° C,fc y of Chrifltohuroh, l! ting , a few ecore of !! m.! / C , erod ! , Llon . a the streets that vore to be, aud since then father, sons and grandsons in succession have continued to bear cheerily the heat and burden of the trying days that fall ..° tn ®L,J®t of every oioneerine eonununJty, lb© Great War took its cruel toll ot tho younger generation as it did ot many other descendants of tho Canj to tho abiding fdorv or their races. But that is another story. It is intereetinir to recall, however, that in tho first organised effort to establish a Canterbury Jockey Club, niQro tfian seventy years ago, ilr W. Guiso Brittan was appointed honorary treasurer, an office h© held till tho present club Was successfully launched and well on its way to becoming the leading racing institution in the colony.

An Archbishop, with th& blood of generations of sportsmen running in his veins, I happen to know, would say it is little Wonder, bred as he is. that Frank talks early raoing.with the'facility and understanding of the accomplished raconteur. The earliest steeplechase no roally remembers seeing was l'tin at Avonhead, over tho country lying between the Riccarton road and the old homestead), and was won by Retribution, a gelding by Riddlesworth, brought down from the North Island and by tradition the most brilliant jumper that ever crossed a fence. That probably waa in the middle Bixtiea, ad Retribution was runninc at the Canterbury Club's meeting about that time; (but my friend has tho quaintest memory for dates preceding the institution of tho Grand National that ever has perplexed the . conscientious nistOrian. Sine© there have been Nationals he has fixed all passages of time "oy. Royalty's year, The Agent's first year,' Canard's "year or some other wjnn6p ? fi year, and with the aid of dt TUri Register, if he does not know theJist off, by heart* he is ceftaimof Jhis. facts. r . 4-fter.. the steeplechase at RiecartO® caine. a ; fiimilnr .event at 'Heathcoto Vial: ley, won bv an animal named Peacock, taken out of Cobb's coach and ridden by Phil Ball, and then one at Papanui won by Polka, ridden by Harry Prince, an enterprising bookmaker of the 'seventies, whose name is embalmed in the records as the owner of Hilarious, the winner of tho first Canterbury Welcome Stakes.

The Connecting Links. Subsequently all steeplechases of consequence around Christchurch, up to the time of the lirst National, were 'held at Linwood, and my friend recollects a deputation coming to him for permission to lay out a courso'over country for which ho was responsibloi (Boys had to be men at sixteen in the early days of settlement.) It is scarcely necessary to say permission waß very readily given, and with the namos of the members of tho deputation before me I wonder it ever was asked. My friend would have xuo believe, after having Been their successors with my own.eyes, that the fences were "fairly easy".; but he confesses to a solid sod and gorse wall 3ft 6in high fronting a twelve feet drain —nojfc a ditch or a sixinch pan of water—which had to be crossed twice.

The principal event at this meeting was won by a mare named Jessie, ridden by Jannaway, whose father's stables we all remember. In the following year the big steeplechase —it was worth something less than £IOO to the winner—was won by Mousetrap, rid den by "a black curly-headed lad of fifteen or oixteen, having his first chance over country,-" as Frank recalls, whom all of us later on camo to know as Tommy Sheenan, who probably had more rough rides in the Grand National than any dozen other jockeys put together, and from tho roughest of them all emerged victorious on Kosciusko in 1883.

There are many amusing stories told in connexion with the racing at Linwood, but nono'of them will bear repetition in any detail just yet. It may be permissible, however, to mention that on one occasion a jockey had been bundled into gaol for dc|bt in order to prevent his riding a horse for which his services were absolutely indispensable. But the owner of the horse had little difficulty in inducing the confident backers of the animal to join him in paying off the incarcerated rider's creditors, though a very considerable Bum was involved. The release of the jockey brought the favourite to a very short price, and it occurred to tho owner that he might do botter for himself by allowing one of the less fancied candidates to win. This determination was communicated to the jockey, whose own cupidity was aroused by the confidence, and, taking the management of the business into his own hands, he won on the horse that should have lost, and collected a substantial part of the money his employer had put out on commission against his mount, in addition to substantial douceurs from the early backers of the favonrite. Of course, it was a sordid affair at best, but such things wore openly talked about half a contury ago, and this undoing of the "clever" owner created much merriment at the time. It was a couple of years later that the headquarters of steeplechasing were removed to Riccarton.

And here I realise I have outrageously overrun my space with nine-tenths of my friend's stories untold- They must be kcjjt for another occasion.