BOGSKAR'S GATWICK WIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 92, 18 April 1940, Page 15

BOGSKAR'S GATWICK WIN

Many horses who have won the National Trial 'Chase at Gatwick have failed when they have tackled the sterner task of the Grand National Steeplechase at Liverpool a few weeks later. But Bogskar succeeded in accomplishing this double this year. The National Trial 'Chase, which was run this year on March 2, is decided over 3£ miles, and the race is very different from the Aintree contest. Yet Bogskar greaUy impressed the critics ou his Gatwick win. "Meyrick Good" wrote:-~"A more stylish display no one could wish to see, and I have no doubt that the son of Werwolf will stay the Liverpool distance." Lord Stalbridge, the owner and trainer of Bogskar, has devoted much of his time and energy to the sport of steeplechasing, and his triumph in the Grand National would have been received with acclamation by everyone who has the welfare of cross-coun-try sport at heart. Lord Stalbridge is on the National Hunt Committee, and he has made such whole-hearted efforts to acquire a champion steeplechaser that his success in the quest is a fully-deserved reward. \ Bogskar's jumping at Gatwick was ~larked by its boldness. The race was not particularly fast.run. Bogskar headed Hobgoblin, Gold Arrow, and Sawfish between the last two fences, and he went on to score decisively from Hobgoblin and Sawfish, neither of whom were in the National field, with Gold Arrow, who was to finish third at Aintree, in fourth place. MacMoffat, who ran second-ir. the National for the second successive year, was not engaged at Gatwick. When Lord Stalbridge was asked after the Gatwick race whether he would be running Bogskar at Cheltenham prior to the National, he replied, with a smile, "I think not. The fences there are not big enough!"

Bogskar was to have been ridden in the National Trial 'Chase by E. Foley, but this horseman was not sufficiently recovered from an accident in Ireland just previously to take the mount, which went to M. Jones. However, it was expected that Foley would be well enough to ride the horse in the Grand National.