RACING IN INDIA I35 



Moorhouse, and Little Prince, when fit and over their own 

 respective distances. With the increase of railways and 

 of the gold " output " at the " Eand," the future of racing 

 in South Africa looks bright. At the same time, I must 

 say that it will have no chance, for many years to come, 

 of successfully competing against Australasia in the 

 Indian horse market, whether with blood stock or re- 

 mounts. Although there are some fair horses bred in 

 South Africa, strange to say, there are hardly any smart 

 ponies produced there. The only exception I saw was 

 that brilliant chasing pony, Coachman. 



The old Cape Town hero, the ch. c.h. Echo, 9 st., at 

 Calcutta, December, 1871, won the Stand Plate, 1 mile, in 

 1 m. 48 s., when he was about thirteen years old. 



There is a sort of fatality about English horses in India ; 

 for few out of the many that are imported prove, either as 

 racers or as ordinary riding-horses, to be worth their 

 passage-money out to this country. Their feet and legs 

 are far more liable "to go to pieces " on our hard ground 

 than those of Australia, New Zealand, or the Cape. The 

 chief reason for this, as far as I can judge, is that the drier 

 climate of our southern colonies is more favourable to the 

 development of soundness in wind and limb, as regards 

 horses, than is the moister one of Great Britain. I am in- 

 clined to go so far as to think that horses bred in a dry 

 climate, and, consequently, on hard soil, will, after a few 

 generations, have legs and feet of a much better shape to 

 stand work on hard ground than those of animals that are 

 natives of a damp country. In this respect, the horses of 

 Australia and the Cape can compare very favourably with 

 those bred in England, a large proportion of which possess 



