The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-22
STORIES.
Dead Horse That wOn the stakes-HOw .
steepleehase Was Won.

A horse that falls asleep during an I'M
portant race must surely have few equals
OF its kind. Yet this is what Happy Bird
did when running at Gatwick a year or so
ago. She was ridden by Birch, the jockey,
and belonged to Mr.. Pritchsrd. She COM
peted in a two mile race. was left well be-
hind and was walking slowly toward the
paddock when a bystander called her riders
attention to the fact that the horse was fast
asleep.
Happy Bird did not win the race. but there
ia on record n still more extraordinary case
of where a dead horse actually did win a
race, says London Ansuers. This absolutely
UNIQUE event occurred 30 far back as i772
and was in a race from Woods Gate, four
miles beyond Tonbridge, 10 Kent street. in
the borough and back. a total length OF some
eighty miles. 1t was arranged that there was
TO be no batting" during the contest, and
that. as the great struggle might well be
expected to kill the winner at the end, the
"frst horse in, dead or alive" should be de-
clared the winner. .
one Of the two horses fell and died.
owing 10 the eXertion, after having gone
only fifteen miles, and the other was thor
ouehly pumped TOO; by th9 3n. tine; I nne
horse on IL, with the Jockey on It's back, and
soon outdtstanced the rival steed, winch w4s
Scarcely even aole - walk. !he !at:er'a
snpporters then tried the same dodge. put
we're unabie TO get a hat cart Tor their sliced;
and 40 the dead horse came i'll easily nrSt
at Moods cate, and was awarded the STAKES
OF iSO g%nineas. And that Is, almost certainly.
the only tune on record when a dead morse
really won an IL portant race.
it il not generally known, that the rules
Of the National Hunt provide tnat when a
Svstander may mount the %riderless horse.
If possible, and may win the rae on II II
he can. This has caused quite q anna
nrAat raGA lnlTQA hafhTA fn-luN
and much astonishment among people
Who did not know the curious rule. FOR
only a few years ago; s a. lkesm aes bv p sa
dsni th asSini MS on a'os Ills ne SSrse! SD %srsine ~
Esso,5 Sh 20. By 81 ,S ses seci ,Hsa S az once ju fo es
on the horses back. and, riding him strongly.
actually won the race,
WSuoeuid almost have exc elled the noted Woods
Gate 70 Borough event as a d HS99rdd99sit & 7 But
ing the post. though II was not a winner.
This was when Countergane; a desc endant
1855 and fell down lust as It reached the
i9Hes away GS3 dead to be buried at Danebury.
nnaa % a rscs sn SSrse d iPt%si "a during RO tie 0 fpn 10
ming of a great race. Yet this Is what
hspDene vs, to b ssliysAffSS s sor ss H Tosa snsd fSs5
in the Totnes handicap hurdle race, and
the River Dart runs close by the side OF
tho track. From some cause which was
never quite clear. Ballyshannon went TO
! pie-es during the. rare, collapsed badly
and, rolling over, fell into the river, where
There has within the last few years
been more than one case where two horses
have run a dead heat a Second time, after
having done so in their original race, but
We have 10 go a very long way back TO find
this unusual thing happening q third time.
was in is2o, when Handel and Tarragon,
at the races al. Nswcsstle;npde Rhyme,
better horse and each time ran q dead heat.
What excitement there must have been on
that cours~' 1856