66 



Out of an entry of nineteen, thirteen accepted, and of 

 these the only ones considered to be really dang-erous were 

 Ratafia, Lady Flo, and The Drummer. Lady Flo's 

 chances for the Light Weight Cup looked particularly 

 rosy, as her owner has found the recipe to ride this 

 mare successfully over a country, namely, to let the rest 

 go on and knock holes in them for her, and then trust 

 to her fine turn of speed at the finish to bring her home. 

 Ratafia was a moral for the Heavy Cup, and had a great 

 many supporters to win the chase outright. The Drum- 

 mer was known to be a bit green and on occasion inclined 

 to be headstrong, but with so good a horseman as his owner 

 up was allowed to be by no means one that his opponents 

 could afford to overlook. 



Of the others little notice was taken. Dinah was 

 known to be a nice little mare, and a grand fencer, but 

 against the class she had to meet was deemed to be 

 harmless. In my private opinion this mare would have 

 won, and won easily had she not jumped carelessly over 

 one of the smallest fences on the whole course and come 

 down. Her feather weight was of course all in her 

 favour, and as she is as fit as a fiddle and a lot cleverer 

 than the ordinary cat, she would have taken a lot of beat- 

 ing if — but then it was "if" and the fences all seemed a bit 

 inclined to be ''if," and had a disconcerting way of turn- 

 ing people over. Blazes and Flatcatcher, although honest 

 hunters, could not be expected to really live with the class 

 that Ratafia and Lady Flo represented. Tantalus is a 

 very nicely bred horse, but has never shown up in the first 

 three places all the season, though we knew^ him for a 

 horse clever at his fences and a good stayer. 



To come down to the cold facts, never in the memory 

 of man has such a crowd foregathered to see a Cup'Chase, 

 and not only did all Calcutta turn out, but the w^hole 

 •country side for miles around was '' up " to see the fun. 



Our Aryan brethren mustered in shoals and posted 

 themselves at every likely looking place. I always know 

 when I am out paperchasing when we are coming up to a 

 rasper from the expectant crowd of '' critics " who congre- 

 gate to wait for the collar bones. The trampled-on tiller 

 of the soil has an uncommonly good eye for an accident, 

 and when he sees two or three sahibs down in a heap with 

 loose horses and "language" flying all over the place, 

 he feels his day has not been wasted and goes on his way 



