96 Indian Racing Reminiscences. 



horses ; namely, that they are not disquaHficd by the 

 mere fact of their not being placed. 



As a wind up to this very successful Dehra Doon 

 meeting, we had a match with Caliph against a fifteen- 

 hand Arab, called the Sheik, who belonged to Mr. 

 Minto, the tea planter. The distance was about six 

 furlongs, and we had to give away some weight. The 

 evening before the match I found Caliph so stiff all 

 round that he could hardly walk. I kept him standing 

 in buckets of warm water all night, had him out for an 

 hour in the morning previous to running, rubbed his 

 fetlocks, knees, and hocks well with laudanum, gave him 

 a quarter of a pint of spirits in water, and had him 

 trotted and cantered up and down. The stiffness wore 

 off, and he won very easily. I had not alone to doctor 

 the horses, but also to prescribe for our jockey Williams. 

 He was a typical specimen of an old and, I trust, now 

 extinct species of Indian jockey. He had been a soldier 

 in some line regiment, but finding that he could ride 

 a little, and that the services of any one who could 

 "stick on" and scale less than 9 st. were in great request 

 in those days in the Punjab, he purchased his discharge, 

 and entered upon his new life with a pair of boots and 

 breeches and an unquenchable thirst for ardent spirits. 



