Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hearty, rakish; successful (in sporting terms).

1836		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Exploits and Adventures in Texas (1934) 214: My little critter, who was both blood and bottom, seemed delighted.
1905		Wodehouse ‘Shields’ and the Cricket Cup’ in Politeness of Princes [ebook] ‘[T]hink of the moral effect it’ll have on the house. It may turn it into the blood house of Wrykyn’.
1909		Wodehouse Mike [ebook] ‘[Y]ou might think it was the blood thing to do to imitate him’.
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 61: He was a sort of blood stockbroker, who did his business by toadying eldest sons and rich young peers and foolish old ladies.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 71: ‘The Seekers?’ ‘Rather a blood club, you know, up at Oxford.’.