280 Among Men and Horses. 



5 



The well-attended race meetings which were held thirty 

 years ago on the common just outside Cape Town on Sea 

 Point Road, and which were chiefly managed by the officers 

 who garrisoned the colony, now exist only in history. The 

 Dutch and Africander inhabitants would willingly look on at 

 the races, but with few exceptions they did not see the force 

 of paying for entrance into any of the enclosures, when they 

 did not know the difference between the starting-post and 

 the judge's box. By the withdrawal of the troops, the number 

 of owners and supporters of racing have become greatly 

 diminished. The ground was accordingly changed to private 

 land about six miles outside of Cape Town and not far from 

 the camp at Wynberg ; but the public is not, as yet, educated 

 up to paying point. The racing, what there is of it, is very 

 poor; not much better than Indian jymkhanali form. Mr 

 Graham Cloete, secretary of the City Club and races, and 

 cousin of Mr ' Paradox ' Cloete, does his best ; but even with 

 contributions levied from ' under and over,' faro, three-card 

 trick, and other ' table ' men, racing at Cape Town is in a dying 

 condition, and has but little hope of improvement. The busy 

 commercial town of Port Elizabeth has a flourishing turf 

 club, nice racecourse, and one of the ' straightest ' of men 

 and pleasantest of companions, for a bookmaker, in Nobby 

 Clarke. At Kimberley, racing may be regarded as a thing of 

 the past. So much for racing in Cape Colony. 



Johannesburg is the only racing centre in the Transvaal. 

 The sport on the Randt, as I have previously said, is well 

 conducted, and good stakes, amounting in some cases to 

 ;£ 1,500, are given. There are, however, so few horses and 

 owners that two meetings, the programmes of which have to 

 be strengthened by pony events, chases and hurdle races, are 

 quite enough for the requirements of the place. In the 

 Orange Free State, the sportsmen of Bloemfontein and 

 Harrismith make spasmodic though well-intended efforts at 

 getting up meetings. Racing in Natal, in which colony there 

 are fixtures at Durban and Maritzburg, is at a low ebb. As 



