REMINISCENCES OF SONEPOREi 



ed over for it, after which the crowd of grumblersturhed to watch 

 the second class handicap, a gift, as they fancied, for .Dirk 

 Hatterick. How the owners had snarled at each other on 

 seeing the weights. Colonel Robarts said Dirk had been 

 chucked in ; Bricky urbanely replied that he felt blooming 

 certain he had, but the winner turned up in Silver Star, and 

 Bricky stuck his tongue in his cheek, as he led Dirk who 

 had finished in the ruck, past the Colonel ; Zuyder Zee was 

 a good second. The meeting wound up with a selling race, which 

 Doctor Rimmer's Blink Bonny pulled off. The racing, taken 

 as a whole, was poor, as Mr. Collins' stable was too strong 

 for the rest ; but still good horses had competed, and the pity 

 was that old Van so far outclassed the rest. Mr. Major did 

 well with Zuyder Zee, and why the big stables did not buy 

 the horse in after the first selling race, was a puzzle to , the 

 majority. He was bought for a thousand, but after the meeting 

 the astute Mr. Major parted with him for Rs. 3,000 and 

 half winnings at the coming Calcutta races, his old owner 

 Mr. Collins, being the buyer. The fair was a small one, and 

 the show of horses poor in the extreme, yet a lot of very 

 heavy shouldered coarse specimens of CabooHs, fetched a 

 good deal more than the usual figures for such cattle, on ac- 

 count of a lot of Calcutta dealers having come up, and the 

 competition being, in consequence, keen. There was a good 

 show of cows, and bullocks, but very few elephants, due to 

 the Durbar forming a greater attraction. This was the year 

 when the great Agra Bank went smash, crippling many of 

 the local indigo planters. The course was in execrable order, 

 full of rat holes, Mr. Mitford's Mirage broke its fetlock in 

 one, when exercising, and had to be shot. This was 

 the year in which Mr. Edward Studd, senior, won the 

 Grand National, at Liverpool, with Salamander. Some funny 

 stories used to be told of old Buxie Brown's essays at training. 

 He had a firm conviction of the efficacy of homoeopathy, 



