London, Jan. 3.
There will be no National Hunt Steeplechase the "Amateurs Grand National—at the big Cheltenham Festival in March. This is the decision of the National Hunt Committee, whose reason, I believe, is that there will not be a sufficient number of amateur riders available, due to the fact that so many of them are on military duty and may not be able to Obtain the necessary leave of absence. It will come, as a blow to keen amateur riders, especially as the Grand Military Gold Cup is not on the list of events this war-time, in view of the absence of Sandown meetings from the fixtures. Regular followers of National Hunt port. however, will be glad to learn that the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle Challenge Cup will again be features of the Cheltenham meeting, and look like attracting fields above the average in point of standard.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.