78 



and Leila turned round and went back to correct their 

 error, but in the meantime Colonel Hunt had come up and 

 sailed home a very easy winner. 



Mr. Rawlinson on Snapshot ought to have won, had 

 he been able to get his horse straight in time, but he 

 jumped only the left wing of the second-last hurdle, and 

 was therefore disqualified. 



The official order was given as follows : — 



* Col. Hunt on Postboy ... i 



t Mr. A. J. Pugh ,, Sir G«reth ... 2 



Mr. C. Campbell ,, Miss Theo ... 3 



Mr. A. S. Harrow ,, Flatcatcher ... 4 



Lord Fincasile ,, P'reebooter ... 5 



Capt. Swanston ,, Leila ... 6 



* Winner of Paperchase Cup. 

 t Winner of Heavy Weight Cup. 



1897. 



The Paperchase season in Calcutta came to a con- 

 clusion on Saturday last, the 30th March, with the Cup 

 Chase. This is the most sporting steeplechase in India, 

 and probably a more severe test so far as the jumping 

 ofoes than even the Indian Grand National, for the fences 

 are decidedly more formidable and the distance greater ; 

 the pace for the class of horse that competes is also very 

 sound. Saturday's race w^as considered to be the most 

 open of all competitions of recent years, for. with Miss 

 Theo absent, it looked as if quite half a dozen of them 

 had a chance of winning. The race, however, is not 

 always to the swift, especially over such country as is 

 before the Paperchase Cup candidates, for there are a 

 great manv more chances against a horse in a competition 

 of this kind than there are in a steeplechase over an open 

 flagged course ; he may find the turns and rough ground 

 take more out of him than he contemplates, the fences 

 probably are not so kind to him as the flying bush fences 

 of Tollygunge and elsewhere, and he may make a wrong 

 turn and run off the paper track and lose ground that he 

 will find it very hard to regain. Aconite, the winner, is 

 a big up-standing bay, who, were it not that he is as 

 handy as a cat and very temperate, would be the very 

 reverse of what one would pick for a pattern paperchaser. 

 He is, however, an undeniable fencer and possessed of a 



