one after one
The turn for home once made , and Valentine 's Brook with its fatal drop left behind , the mare and her stable-mate came away like arrows from the bow . She lay on the rails , her guardian angel hard on her right . Jackaroo might be old , but he was still as good a two-miler as any in England . The pair caught their horses one after one and left them standing ; and the roar of the multitude was like that of the sea as the defeated host melted away behind . At last only the Irish horse refused to give place to the importunate pair . Twice they challenged , and twice the gray shook them off . They came again ; and for a while the star-spangled jacket , the purple and gold , the cerise and white , rose at their fences like one .