Word: raced
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...100th running of the Grand National, the old-legend of the founding of steeplechasing was retold more frequently than usual-how one hot night in the early 1770s a befuddled country squire led his guests out in their night-shirts, mounted them, and led them in a wild race over hedge, fence & field to distant Nachton Village Church steeple. A view of the finish of that first steeplechase was engraved by John Harris in 1839, the year of the first Grand National. That year and for over two decades afterwards all steeplechases had a faintly unsavory character. Gentlemen...
...before the race the crowd observed the custom of tramping afoot around the world's most dangerous steeplechase course. They swarmed past Becher's Brook-named for the Captain Becher who, spilled by his mount in the 1839 running, dived into the stream to escape being trampled by following horses-past Valentine's, past the deadly Canal Turn, where as many as 22 horses have failed in a single race, round to the water jump before the stands. Next day 36 horses started to make the same circuit twice. Only 13 succeeded...
...small Irish jumper, Sir Francis Towle's Airgead Sios, raced ahead of the field at the start. Jump after jump he took beautifully until the tenth fence, just beyond Valentine's Brook, there he fell and threw his jockey. Delachance, the American favorite, swept into the lead, was still pacing the pack over the water jump before the grandstand, when Rock Lad, only Canadian-owned horse in the race, fell. He crawled out with a broken back. An ambulance drove out on the track to destroy him and remove his body, as Delachance led 18 survivors...
...them past Becher's Brook Then another American horse, Battleship (son of Man o' War), a small chestnut stallion who began his career as a flat racer, pulled ahead. At Canal Turn, Royal Mail- whose former owner, Hugh Lloyd Thomas, was killed while training to ride the race, whose jockey fractured a collarbone last month-succumbed to his jinx. He burst a blood vessel and pulled out of the race...
...Battleship's owner is Marian du Pont Somerville Scott, wife of Cinemactor Randolph Scott. She landed in England in time to reach Aintree only two hours before the race. Dressed in horsy tweeds and a Robin Hood hat, Mrs. Scott was jammed in the crowd after the finish, could not lead her horse in as the winner's owner usually does. When she finally reached Battleship's stable, she patted his neck with mixed emotions. Said she: "I am glad I won the Grand National. I didn't have a bet on the race...