Racing in South Africa. 281 



Johannesburg is now connected by rail with Port Eliza- 

 beth and East London, and will soon be united to Durban, 

 racing in South Africa is bound to improve. Yet I think it 

 will be a long time before it will be worth a stranger's while 

 to take horses out there to race. There are a few English 

 jockeys of moderately fair pretensions and some Africander 

 light weights. The fixtures are so few and as a rule so un- 

 important, and the distances between them are so enormous, 

 that South Africa is a very poor place for a jockey. The 

 horses are of inferior selling race form. There is no steeple- 

 chasing or hurdle racing worth speaking of; and the racing 

 ponies are moderate in the extreme. Again I say, all these 

 things will be changed for the better in the near future. The 

 one great reformation which South African racing sorely 

 needs, is the formation of a central turf club (preferably at 

 Johannesburg) which would legislate for the entire country. 



To the best of my belief, Johannesburg is the only place 

 in South Africa at which there is a non-military polo club. 

 The ' soldiers ' have a club at Maritzburg and are the chief 

 supporters of the game at Wynberg (Cape Town). Polo can 

 be played in South Africa only under great difficulties ; for 

 the white population is not alone small in number and widely 

 distributed, but there are remarkably few ponies in that 

 country suitable to the game. To me, the strangest thing 

 about the horse flesh of that part of the world, is that al- 

 though the ordinary horse is a hardy, leggy animal of from 

 14.2 to 15.1 and has often a manifest dash of the Arab, there 

 are extremely few smart ponies from 13.2 to 14 hands to be 

 met with. There are several hard-working Basuto ponies to 

 be found ; but they are almost all too slow. 



Having bade good-bye to our kind friends at Johannes- 

 burg, we went to Pretoria, which is about twenty-four miles 

 distant, and which is the capital of the Transvaal. Having 

 had the way well prepared for us by the newspapers, we were 

 well received by the Dutch and English residents, and had 

 the good luck to get the able and courteous Mr Jack Hess to act 



