REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



Pughe, George Walker, J. Bourdillon, W. B. Hudson, W. 

 Elliott, R. Brown, E. A. Mackintosh, M. P. Gasper, S. Llew- 

 hellin, Captain Renton, and Majors St. Paul and Prior, with 

 Harry Abbott, Honorary Secretary ; they had now for two 

 years sensibly gone back to open to all programmes. 



Some years before this there were four or five meetings 

 yearly held in Behar, at most of which the majority of events 

 were open, and meetings not being so numerous, horses 

 from all parts turned up to compete. To cope with these, 

 first one and then a second, and a third local stable sprang 

 into existence, and held their own fairly enough with the 

 outsiders ; of course they collared the best of the local 

 prizes, and deservedly so, for their horses were well 

 selected and systematically trained. But the opening up 

 of larger meetings nearer to the direct lines of railway, 

 where better purses were offered and much more money 

 obtainable from lotteries and bookmakers, caused a falling-off 

 of outside horses at most of the Behar meetings, and, conse- 

 quently, the racing was left chiefly to the three or four local 

 stables. Then shortly afterwards a cry was raised by the 

 youngsters of the district of " This is all skittles, we don't 

 want to see Harry and Gwatkin and Jimmy ringing the 

 changes race after race. Why should we not have a share ? " 

 To please them an entire change of programme was made at 

 Mozufferpore. Sonepore followed in its wake, but the result 

 was chaos. Gya, Chupra and Motihari virtually died out. 

 Mozufferpore struggled a year or two longer and then demised 

 as a first class fixture, but the Sonepore men were sensible 

 enough to see the folly of their ways, and by offering even a 

 more liberal programme than in the days of yore, have gradually 

 brought their meeting round, and, in fact, it now stands the only 

 first class meeting in Behar. What chiefly militates against local 

 amateurs racing nowadays is, that our boys have neither the nags 

 nor the money to race with, polo takes all their spare cash, 



