RACING IN INDIA. 138 



can get good sport with a few moderate ones. Per- 

 sonally I would take more interest in training an 

 inferior animal, and, by skill and work, winning races 

 with him in moderate company, than in owning (as 

 many do at home) first-class horses which were entirely 

 in the hands of a trainer, on whom I would have to be 

 solely dependent for information as to their form and 

 pretensions. 



Six or seven horses will be found a large enough 

 string for up-country meetings, if the owner intends to 

 look after them himself, and expects them to win enough 

 to cover their expenses. To accomplish this, one 

 should have horses of an useful class, that would be 

 certain to find races to run for, at the different meet- 

 ings to which they might go, with a fair chance of 

 pulling off an event now and then. Keeping horses 

 too good for one's line of country, is hardly more 

 paying than owning animals too bad for it. The 

 presence of first-class horses (if their form be known) 

 deters owners from entering against them ; the races do 

 not fill ; and even if they do so on an odd occasion, it 

 is simply "buying money" to back them; while in 

 handicaps, a good horse, among moderate ones, gets so 

 much weight piled on, that it is almost certain, either 

 to break him down, or to spoil his action. An owner 

 should remember that knowledge of the best manner 

 in which to "place" his horses, is the great secret of 

 success in racing. 



A first-class steeplechaser does not come under these 

 objections ; for " between the flags," one's money being 

 "in the air," men will usually enter on the outside 

 chance of a fall or refusal. Besides this, the added 



