I40 TRACING IN INDIA 



class runner ; and so would be a horse which could, with 

 weight for age and class, do his mile in 1 m. 43 s., or two 

 miles in 3 m. 39 s. on the Calcutta course, for instance, if 

 he will hut try in public, for herein lies the source of nine- 

 tenths of the disappointments timing leads to. The 

 " going " on most Indian racecourses, except at Bangalore, 

 Hyderabad, Poonah, and Dehra Doon, is very similar, 

 being almost quite level and pretty hard. As it is 

 impossible to get all horses to run the same in public as in 

 private, I would strongly advise the young turfite to limit 

 the use of the stop-watch to public performances, and to 

 regulating the pace of training gallops. If one wishes to 

 test the powers of a young one, it should be done, not by 

 '' putting him against the watch," but by trying liim with 

 some horse that has recently run well in public, and is at 

 the time of the trial in racing condition. Then if the 

 young one beats the trial horse, and does the distance in 

 really good time, it is all the more to his credit. No exact 

 information as to a horse's form can be obtained by timing 

 his gallops when he takes them alone, for not one horse in 

 ten will run the same by himself as in company, and it 

 would only lead to disappointment to allow for an error 

 that, for all the owner knows, may be either for or against 

 his horse's powers. 



I believe that, even with the greatest care and under 

 the most favourable circumstances, the time test alone 

 cannot be relied upon with a smaller margin for error than 

 10 lbs. in 1 mile, which, allowing for difference in horses, 

 and for the different way races are run, we may assume 

 would be equivalent to from 20 to 30 yds. in that distance, 

 or from 1^ to 2 s., which does not say very much for 



