A Sensational Steeplechase.

Hastings Standard, Issue 93, 13 August 1896, Page 4

A Sensational Steeplechase.

A FALL AND A WIN. By Asmobeis ix the Leader. Bewildering and long sustained as most have been the excitement- on Epsom Downs on the occasion of Persimmon's recent victory in the Derby, the outburst of uncontrollable enthusiasm which occurred at Caulfield on Saturday was proportionately none the less demonstrative and spontaneous. Never before or since Carbine's memorable Melbourne Cap triumph has such a scene of wild animation presented itself on an Australian racecourse. The Heath was fairly convulsed in a paroxysm of inflammatory enthusiasm, and never during my long connection with the turf do I remember witnessing anything so soul stirring. And it was a truly remarkable incident which was accountable for his spontaneous combustion of popular excitement. At the same time, the occurrence was not without precedent; other horses before Galway have fallen in steeplechases, been remounted and then won, but not under the same thrilling conditions which attended John Smith's extraordinary performance on the Redleap east off." When Wi 11-o'-the-Wisp fell with Mr Godfrey Watson at Flemington last October, got up and snatched a victory from Mr Gordon Lyon on Dolphin, the circumstances were quite different. Will-o'-the-Wisp would never have overhauled Dolphin, but for the grey's rider being lulled into a feeling of false security, thereby slowing his horse down to a hand canter, and subsequently mistaking the warning cry of the multitude for demonstrations of applause, quite oblivious of the descent Will-o'-the-Wisp was making on him. Then again, when the late Tom Corrigan about 11 years ago performed a similar feat on the Tasmauian horse Echo (whose owner, Mr K. G. Talbot was, strangely enough, also an eye witness of the Galway espisode on Saturday), the leading horses, Clarence and Morveu, likewise waited for the fallen horse to get on terms with them in a most accommodating manner. No such fortuituous circumstances favored Galway; the leaders made the pace a cracker all the way, and he had a quarter of a mile in which to make up his lost ground than either Will o' the Wisp or Echo. Herein, therefore, rested the great merit of Galway's marvellous performance. Had Smith been brought up on the prairies of Texas amongst Redskins anil cowboys, or graduated in a circus, he could not have remounted Galway with greater dexterity than he displayed. His natural horsemanship further caused him to pay no thought to stirrup irons until he had negotiated the logs ; he comfortably seated himself in the saddle before reaching the succeeding fence on the hill, where the leaders were so far in front that the most fatuous of the favorite's backers scarcely ever thought there was the remotest chance of Galway taking a hand in the finish. Meanwhile Smith handled the mount with consummate judgment ; for a cauple of furlongs he gave him every chance to pull himself together for the mammoth task which awaited him, and it was not until essaying the long racing stretch leading to the log fence at the back of the course that Galway appreciably reduced the gap between himself and the front division. It was between the logs and the mud wall that the favorite raised the hopes of his partisans, yet so strongly did Tapage and Korke's Drift force the pace that people were expecting every moment to see Galway crark up. On the contrary, he joined issued with the two leaders in a most surprising manner. and the performance was sufficiently meritorious to cause the company m indf-r to break out in tumultuous applause. Excitement became intensified as Galway and Rorke's Drift drew away from Tapage and engaged iu a deadly duel for the rest of the distance : notwithstanding the disadvantageous conditions under which Galway took on his opponent and former stable companion, he responded to his jockey's calls with unflinching gameness, and was finally rewarded by one of the most sensational victories ever achieved in a steeplechase. The renewed cheering which accompanied Smith's return . to scale was again of the most genuine order, and the entire spectacle was one which will not readily efface itself from the memories of those who were fortunate enough to witness tt. For one, I would not have misled it for a trifle. As far as is concerned, it is the incident }«u rn-> 11,-n<;> of the centurv.