REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



made his debut as a race rider this year; next to Colonel Elliott 

 (Mr. Locke), Rowland is the best G.R. we have seen in India, 

 As Thoby Prinsep had departed to Calcutta, Eraser McDonell 

 once more took up the reins as Secretary of Sonepore, the rest 

 of the Stewards being the same as the preceding year. The 

 dates fell early in November. Of the prfevious year's racing men 

 Wheal was again to the fore, with a fine string of Baboo Shama 

 Churn Mullick's, little witting that a few months would see his 

 sporting employer relegated to that sphere specially set apart for 

 good Hindoos, and his grand stud brought to the hammer. 

 Shama Churn was a straight and thorough sportsman, and John 

 Wheal worked honestly for him, though even then John bore 

 the reputation, not unjustly, of being a confirmed grumbler. He 

 had with him that grand Australian filly Phillipine, the English 

 mare Moonlight, and the Arabs Prince Regent, and Acrobat ; 

 John Irving had the Bombay stable, and Bricky Collins' old 

 champion Vanderdecken, who changed hands frequently 

 through the meeting, once being bought by Tom Gibbon, who 

 eventually sold him to Rowland Hudson. There was plenty 

 of go still in the three-cornered, fiddleheaded, honest old buggy 

 nag, and none of his owners ever lost money on him-. But the 

 stable of the lot was brought by Ali Abdoola, who had just got 

 out of a mess at Bangalore, where his then confederate, Kelly- 

 Maitland, had been warned off for a year, for having, as was 

 alleged, offered a present to Hackney the jockey. Ali was 

 allowed to race the horses, having severed connection witb 

 Kelly ; many thought Kelly badly treated, but the authorities 

 took a harsh view, and consequently we did not see the versatile 

 correspondent of the Pioneer that year at Sonepore. Ali was 

 accompanied by a bright little daughter, prettily dressed in Arab 

 costume, who was quite at home in the racers' loose boxes ; 

 she is the same plucky lady who is running the dairy farm at 

 Allahabad. Ali had the handsomest horse we had ever seen in 

 India up to this the great Australian chesnut Satellite ; he had 



