FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 935, 31 March 1930, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOOK-OUT MAN." SURE PHILOSOPHY As we grow older, we must take Such comfort as we may. We cannot in the self-same spots Be bald as well as grey. * * * IN THE KHYBER PASS In the Khyber Pass is a hoarding that has recently held two posters of widely different vein. The first one advertised those well-known artists, the Two Black Crows. The second one has a warning sound. It reminds the passer-by of the fire and brimstone that await the wicked. But the paper is transparent, and underneath can be seen the large type of the original bill. It reads: “Why bring that up?” * * * THE OPTIMIST The latest harbinger of good tidings is the Hon. George Forbes, who is confident that the land will tide us over our troubles, and that we can double and perhaps treble our production. Ministers of the Crown are, of course, confirmed optimists. They have to be. But with Mr. Forbes it was not ever thus. Once in the House, after a lugubrious discourse, Sir Maui Pomare tartly dubbed him “snivelling George.” (Laughter.) A Liberal back-bencher at once called Sir Maui something equally uncomplimentary, all concerned were promptly called to order, and a lively little incident thus closed without bloodshed. A RACE TO Tlhs SPIRE It seems tliere were, almost two centuries ago, two Irishmen who for t wager raced their horses over moor, t'en, hedge and highway “to the spire of the St. Leger church.” Every year, now, more than two score horses charge like cavalry over a course which might have been designed by the Devil himself. This is the Grand National, premier event of the great and exhilarating sport which the two Irishmen all unwittingly began. Perhaps it is appropriate that Irish horses and an Irish jockey should again win the race. But church steeples have long since been abandoned as the goal. Gold and glory await the victor now. ORDEAL AT AINTREE * The Grand National course at Aintrees is four miles 856 yards long, and has 16 obstacles, all but two of which must be surmounted twice in the running. Most famous of the obstacles is a thorn fence. five feet high and more than three feet thick, on the far side of which is a brook five feet wide, and a six-foot drop. In the first Grand National (1839) Captain William Becher, a fine bewhiskeretl horseman, rode his mount at this jump. The horse rose, crashed, and went down in a heap, while its rider soared onward through the air. Realising the danger of oncoming chargers, Captain Becher scrambled back into the brook and remained under water till the field was past. To this day it is Becher’s brook in his honour. MACHINE-GUN FIRE The greatest point of jeopardy in the race is the Canal turn, where ditch, fence, water hazard and hairpiu bend await the rider. Here sometimes a dozen horses strike and topple, and the thud of hoofs hitting the top of the fence is lil|e the rattle of a machine gun. Directly in front the stands is Valentine’s brook —a small fence, a 12-foot water jump, and upward slope. It takes its name from a horse called Valentine, whose rider bet he would be first over it. He raced Lottery to the fence, cleared it, and won his bet. But Lottery crashed into the stone and was killed. The hurdles are not the only danger. Riderless mounts, trained to do or die, go tearing on, weaving in and out, crashing into the other horses. It is a great day at Aintree if more than an eighth of the original field clears the final fence and staggers through the last 500 yards. * * ■ . RED FOR A- HORSE On the far side of every Grand National jump wait men with blankets, stretchers, bandages, drugs They have signal flags to call for the ambulances —red for a horse, yellow for a man. There is romance a-plenty in the lore of the event. Princes’ horses have won, and so have cart horses. Rubio, the only Amer-ican-bred winner (though two others have been U.S.-owned), was shipped to England as a racer,, failed, was sold for £l9, hauled a hotel luggage van for a year, then came back to glory. Master Robert, winner in 1924, had pulled a plough. Then there was Moifaa, an ugly grey gelding, shipped from New Zealand with high hopes in 1904. There was a shipwreck. Moifaa was believed drowned. But one fine morning two . Irish fishermen found the horse on a barren island. They trained him on the old Pairvhouse course, and when the horses ran at Aintree it was Moifaa, the castaway, that won.