REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 43 



bribed not to win, by a civilian. The night before the race, hear- 

 ing that an attempt would be made to poison Curraghmore, Mr. 

 Vincent placed a " Nujeeb " guard round the horse's stall, and 

 at two o'clock in the morning they caught a European jockey 

 trying to get into the stable. It was perhaps a pity he did not 

 effect his purpose, as the horse was a man eater and would have 

 certainly savaged a stranger, but a ring had been formed and, 

 though the nobbling overnight failed, the horse was equally suc- 

 cessfully stopped in the actual race. There were some rank 

 scamps on the turf in those days, both amongst owners and 

 professionals, and even Sonepore was not free from scoun- 

 drelism. Peter was the jockey who rode Curraghmore. Shortly 

 after this regretable occurrence, Mr. Vincent sold the good and 

 game little horse to Major Goad of Simla, for four thousand 

 rupees, but whether in addition to palpably roping the horse 

 during the race, Peter had drugged the bit, so as to ensure his 

 nefarious ends, will never be known ; at any rate, the horse 

 never won another race, and his failure was put down to the 

 usual weakness of English and Irish horses bad feet ; far more 

 likely that poison was so infused into his system, that he went 

 wrong all round. In 1864 Mr. Vincent resigned the service, 

 but still kept up the Barh stud, though residing during the hot 

 weather at Mussoorie, where he built a couple of nice houses, 

 during the winter he used to visit his old hunting grounds at 

 Sonepore and Mozufferpore, and, till his eventual return to 

 England in 1869, always had something good enough to carry 

 his colors to the front. Behar owed much to him as a valuable 

 official, a straight racing man and an enthusiastic breeder of 

 throughbreds. It was at the meeting of 1863 that Mr. Jimmy 

 McLeod first made his appearance as a G.R. and he rode a 

 C.B. mare of his own called Gentle Annie, second to the well- 

 known Arab Selim. Old stagers knowing that Jimmy had little 

 or no experience as a race rider, despised the performance, 

 but seeing how well the mare hacl run, advised him to put 



