Quite a fillip, which was very welcome, was given to racing under
National Hunt Rules during the week which included the last days of
January and the first days of February. Gatwick began it, and, with two
stakes of £500 each, and the minimum of £100 only once not reached,
success was well deserved. One doubts whether much profit can accrue
from a meeting run on these liberal lines in winter. The meeting had
been brought forward from March with the view of steering clear of the
whirlpool which, later on, draws everything that can jump into the Grand
National. The experiment must be deemed successful, for horses were
numerous on each of the two days, whilst the public turned up in good
numbers in anticipation of sport that was not denied them. One felt
almost as though attending at a revival, so mediocre and tame had been
much of the racing earlier in the jumping season. On the first day the
chief item was the Tantivy Steeplechase, and in this the five-year-old
Sachem, who had shown ability over hurdles, winning two hurdle races at
the Sandown Park December Meeting, one of them the Grand Annual Hurdle
Handicap, came out as a steeplechaser for the first time in public. He
did so with conspicuous success, for he was carrying 11st. 10lb. and won
in excellent style. By far too many people knew that he had been fencing
in good form at home for the price about him to be long, and only the
presence of Rathvale prevented him from starting favourite. On the
second day came the International Hurdle Handicap, and in this
Isinglass’ son, Leviathan, did well by carrying home 11st. 12lb. to
victory.
Kempton Park followed on in the same liberal style, and met the same
degree of success. The £500 race on the first day was the Middlesex
Hurdle race, in which that expensive purchase, Sandboy, who had won a
couple of hurdle races, was running, weighted the same as The Chair. The
last-named always had the foot of Sandboy, being sent on a pace-making
mission which he carried out with such effect as to lead to within
twenty strides of the post. A sudden dash by Therapia, however, gave her
the race by a neck; and whether the rider of The Chair was caught
napping is a question upon which no agreement is likely to come about.
On the second day, John M.P. created a great impression by the way he
won the Coventry Handicap Steeplechase, named after the Earl of
Coventry, carrying 12st. 2lb. The way he strode along and jumped made
one think of Aintree, but two miles over ordinary fences is a very
different story to four and a half miles of the Grand National
staggerers. If John M.P. proves to be a genuine stayer, then he must
have a great chance. The only previous outing this season of John M.P.
was a hurdle-race under 12st. 7lb.
Sandown came in for some icy weather for its February Meeting. Over the
three miles of the Burwood Steeplechase Ranunculus did a very smooth
performance, but had nothing to push him, much less beat him. In winning
the Sandown Grand Prize, a Handicap Hurdle Race, under 12st. 7lb.,
Rassendyl showed himself improved out of all knowledge, and scored his
fourth consecutive win out of four times out. Mr. Stedall is persevering
enough to deserve a good one now and then.
At Hurst Park the next week a splendid entry was obtained for the Open
Steeplechase, but the race fizzled out to a field of three, and of these
Kirkland was as fat as the proverbial pig, though looking extremely
well. John M.P. gained a very easy win from Desert Chief, who, besides
chancing his fences in a way that spells grief at Aintree, altogether
failed to get three miles.
It is not unlikely that some clerks of courses will, in the future, make
a slight alteration in the distance of some of their handicap
steeplechases, so as to escape the action of the new conditions for the
Grand National, one of which penalises a winner of a handicap
steeplechase over a distance exceeding three miles 6 lb. extra. Winners
of any two steeplechases of three miles or over are penalised 4lb.