11-Year-Old Stallion

In Liverpool's Adelphi Hotel sporting men in loud checked waistcoats kept their confidence up by the bootstraps as they waited last week for the running of the Grand National Steeplechase. In progress was one of the greatest bookies' panics in years; for if the ''favorite," Blue Shirt, should win, the bookies stood to lose -L-1,000,000. Actually, few racing men seriously believed Blue Shirt would win, but there was always an off chance that the public might for once be right. Bookies, like frightened stockbrokers, forced odds down to 8-to-1 to save their skins. Among knowing racegoers, however, the most likely winners were considered to be Royal Mail, winner last year; Delachance, the likeliest American-owned starter; and Cooleen, hope of Irishmen because she ran second last year.

Because last week was the 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 of the Jockey Club supervised flat racing, but any toffer could ride a nag in a hedgehopping race. Long before last week, however, the steeplechase Grand National had taken its place with the flat Derby as social tops in English horse racing. Into the little marmalade-manufacturing town of Aintree poured 250,000 spectators, cockney sports, peers of the realm, ambassadors, socialites, to witness the 100th running.

Day 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.

A 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 of the 36 into the second lap.

He led 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.

After Valentine's Brook, Royal Danieli, an Irish horse, swept past Battleship, and Sir Alexander Maguire's Workman came from behind. As attendants were loading the carcass of Rock Lad upon an ambulance, Royal Danieli, Battleship and Workman thundered over the last jump. Cooleen and Delachance were fourth and fifth, Blue Shirt far behind in seventh place. Nose and nose Royal Danieli and Battleship raced toward the finish.

It was one of the closest the old Grand National had ever seen. In the last few strides Battleship--eleven years old, a 40-to-1 shot-- won by little more than the elegantly arching nose which makes him look like his great father. Racegoers will have good reason to remember that victory because:

P: Battleship was the first Grand National winner to have been both U.S.-bred and owned. (Rubio, the hotel bus-horse which won in 1908, had been born in the U. S. but was British-owned. Three U. S.-owned, British-bred horses have won--in 1923, 1926, 1933.)

P: 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."

P: Only 15.2 hands high, Battleship was one of the smallest horses ever to win.

P: It is extremely rare for a stallion to win, rarer for one which has stood at stud, as had Battleship.

P: Battleship's trainer was Reginald Hobbs; Battleship's jockey Bruce Hobbs, 17, the youngest British professional jockey, youngest ever to win the race. Together they were the first father-son, trainer-jockey combination to carry off the Grand National.

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