CHAPTER VIII. 

 The Hunter's Steeplechase. 



In every country, where anything in the shape of a 

 Hunt Club exists, it is usually found that at some time 

 during the season the sporting ''bloods" who support it 

 arrange to have something in the shape of an Olympiad 

 to find out whose horse is the fastest and which man is the 

 best jockey. It usually takes the form of a race or two 

 between the flags and a Hunt Cup, in which all the fliers 

 are certain to be seen out. In Calcutta our Paperchase Cup 

 for many years since the commencement of paperchasing 

 served this purpose, and does still do so to a very great 

 extent, but as it is not exactly a steeplechase, as that form 

 of entertainment is ordinarily understood, the sporting 

 members of this Club in the year 1890 approached the 

 Turf authorities and got them to vote funds for a race "for 

 hunters " at the Tollygunge Steeplechases. The first 

 *' Hunter's Steeplechase," as we know the race to-day, was 

 run in that year, though prior to that a race entitled the 

 Amateur Welter had been in existence and was practically 

 a steeplechase on the same terms as the Hunter's Steeple- 

 chase to-day : that is to say, it was *' for hunters " and the 

 conditions required that only G. R.'s should ride. Mr. 

 Dudley Myers, the president of the Calcutta Paperchase 

 Club, rode in, and won, this race on Zulu, his Paperchase 

 Cup winner, and as it was run over the Tollygunge course 

 as it used to be, and not over the flimsy make-believe 

 thing we have to-day, it took a good deal more winning. 

 B, CPR 10 



