A Running Commentary by R. C. LYLE , relayed from The Roodeye Race Course,
Chester
(Copyright. See notice on page 407)
A plan of the course is on page 378
THE ANNUAL RACING FESTIVAL at Chester ranks only second to the summer carnival at Epsom, and what the Derby is to the one, ' t'Coop ' is to the other, and lovers of racing will welcome R. C. Lyle 's running commentary this afternoon.
The Chester Cup Stakes is a handicap run over the old Cup Course, about two miles and a quarter, which means slightly more than two circuits of the cramped, basin-shaped track on the Roodeye. It is worth about £2,500 to the winner, and the owners of the first, second and third horses each receive of long tradition a Champion Cheshire Cheese ' of the value of 5 sovs '.
Through the generations this Cup has been inseparable from romance. In the old ante-post betting days fortunes were won and lost on it, and coups were planned the year before. In the 'seventies it was won two years in succession by a horse called Pageant, a feat emulated by Chivalrous in 1922 and 1923. In 1931, Brown Jack , the finest stayer of modern times, won it, though he was already seven years old and carried an almost prohibitive weight.
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