THE FIRST PEACE NATIONAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16448, 3 June 1919, Page 7

THE FIRST PEACE NATIONAL.

VAST CROWDS AT AINTREE. SNOW, SUNSHINE, AND A i-'AVOLimiVS RAUL.

LIVERPOOL, March 28. No one who was it Aintrce to-day is at ail likely to forget the first Grand. National alter the war. It was a joyflu and memorable renewal in accordance with the best traditions o' the great festival.

G'ortiiinly the weather was entirely i traditional. Ask any Liverpool man, j alJ d he will tell you that it, always | snows on the day of the National, and | so it was only proper that just at 3 1 o clock, as tho starters for tho big race [ came out, a fierce blizzard of snow j swept over the course. 'The race was postponed for a few minutes, and then I oll f came the sun as if he had relented. | And if he did not was no more than Liverpool clcservicd for its single-heart-ed determination. 'The morning was bitterly cold—the wind shrieked and thojclouds lowered—but it was palpable very early in the day that, come what imgnt, every single person who could got away was to Axntreo. By 11 o’clock, four hours before the great race began, crowds wore seething on the platform at the Exchange Station. If you stood in the front row of the crowd and by good fortune a carriage stopped exactly opposite you you got in, though 'not without fighting. Otherwise you waited for the next tram, hoping for the best, and the best ivas 24 people in one first-class carriage. Nor was it Liverpool only that went. It was credibly reported on Thursday night that there was not a bed to be had nearer than Birmingham. Manchester, Southport, and Blackpool were crammed to the last inch and poured in their thousands on Friday morning. CROWDS AT THE JUMPS. Yet once at Aintree even this tremendous crowd seemed at times almost to melt aw r ay. It surged thick and black enough near the start and finishing points in front of the enclosure. On tho whole towering length of the stands there was not, when the supreme moment came, an available inch of room. But in walking -round the course before the race ono came on agreeable patches of solitude where even the raucous yelling of tho bookmakers died away into silence. Between 12 and 1 o’clock hundreds of people were trying to walk their frozen blood into circulation round the course and gazing at the jumps. Perhaps the snowy sky and piercing wind made them look more huge and ominous than usual. Certainly they looked alarming enough for anything. It was along the canal bank that they appeared most blood curdling, and it is at Canal Corner that those congregate who hope to see plenty of spills for their money. Even tho canal itself, sometimes so drowsy and sunshiny, looked fierce, and threatening and lashed its shores with angry wavelets. Along its bank were drawn up canal boats in long rows—the Ada or Alice or Blanche of Wigan—their grimy blackness relieved by those mysteriously painted patterns and pictures which belong to canal boats alone, while festal flags waved from their funnels. Already three hours before the race spectators were sitting on them in rows braving the gale. Others more prudent sought, what shelter they could under the canal bank and opened flasks and packets of sandwiches. Most comfortable of all appeared certain bookmakers of the humbler sort, who carried on their business snugly enough inside old four-wheeled cabs from which the horses had been extracted.

ADMIRAL BEATTY’S APPEARANCE. When one returned walking round the course, one found that the crowd, thick as it had been before, was now enormously swollen. There was a good sprinkling of khaki, among the dark colours, but demobilisation has made such a gathering far more sombre than it would have been a year ago. Here and there, too, was the blue of sailors from tho Queen Elizabeth, and there were American sailors as well ns soldiers. Everybody was looking for one sailor in particular, Admiral Beatty, who had timed his visit to receive the freedom of Liverpool with very nice discretion. But even Admiral Beatty, even Lord Derby in the heart of his own country, were difficult to see in that vast sea of people. At last the Admiral was discovered on a lofty balcony in plain clothes, and carrying the very complex glasses with which he has so often been depicted in the illustrated papers, looking in vain for the German fleet. Then the crowd turned their glasses on him fed a moment or two and turned hack to their racing. There was one race at half-past 1 and another at 2, hut they left the crowd comparatively cold, even when in__t*no first race the black jacket of Lord Derby.came first past the post. Nothing really mattered till 3 o’clock, and tho last hour passed rather slowly and restlessly, the stands getting fuller and fuller, tho bookmakers hoarser and hoarser. Then came the snowstorm. At ono moment we were looking at the bright pattern of silk jackets against a green background. The next moment the background was white and we could scarcely see anything for tho whirling flakes. CHEERS FOR THE FAVOURITE. But it was all over in less than no time. The colour® looked brighter than ever in the sunshine, and away they went. For a short while they were visible all in a clump. Then they disappeared behind the solid wall of black people. We caught a glimpse of them along the canal hank, still keeping well together. Again they disappeared, again till they were almost upon us at the end of the first round. There was the usual riderless horse and two or three had fallen away, but still the clump of -horses was of a good slate as it disappeared behind the black wall for a second time. The second time round, however, was bound to tell a tale, and, sure enough, when next we saw them away in the distance by the canal some were streaking out in front and others tailing away behind. There were only three in it now, and they vanished again. minute’s silence and then everybody was saying two words, “The favourite,” and a ripple of cheers began to grow and grow. It would hesitate for a moment and then break out more cheerfully as one more danger was passed. Then as the last jump was over it broke into a triumphant roar, and Poethlyn swept past the post and an unforgettable Grand National was over.

GRAND . NATIONAL STEEPLECHASE (handicap) of 4000 sovs., including a trophy value 125 sovs.; second to receive 300 sovs and third 150 sovs. Grand National course, about four miles and 856 yards.