REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



scarcely see the necessity for the Secretary's getting touchy 

 over so unworthy a subject. He was an Emigration Agent 

 from Calcutta. 



" Amongst the entire body of Stewards there is only one 

 gentleman who knows or cares anything about racing. The 

 prospectus was too evidently hastily formed and still more 

 carelessly supervised. Errors, which the veriest tyro that ever 

 attempted to get up a pony sky meet would never have passed 

 unquestioned, were allowed to creep in, and when objections 

 were raised, the decisions of the Stewards were weak in the 

 extreme, and in most instances have been appealed against. 



" With regard to the handicapping I fully concur with the 

 sentiments expressed by the correspondents of the other 

 papers present. If the Stewards, instead of puzzling their 

 heads for hours to bring horses together, of whose running at 

 other places they know literally nothing, would send for the few 

 owners or representatives of the horses, these individuals 

 would in ten minutes frame a handicap, which the whole lot 

 would accept and on which several lotteries would be held. It is, 

 however, I fear too late to hope for any chance of resuscitating 

 the Sonepore Meet, as it has become too utterly utter, but had 

 this been done before, there might have been some hopes for 

 the future . 



" I fear I shall raise a buzz of indignation from all connected 

 directly or indirectly with the management, but I only echo 

 the undisguised sentiments of those outside what the correspon- 

 dent of the Pioneer described ' as the little family party.' A 

 lesson that might well be learned by other well-wishers of sport 

 in getting up new race meets is the utter absurdity of the long 

 list of complimentary stewards that almost invariably swell the 

 list of prospectuses, who are mostly placed there in the hopes 

 that the honor paid them will be an inducement to increase 

 their subscriptions. Utterly ignorant of racing and its laws, 

 with every desire to be just, their votes but too frequently go 



