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INDIAN TURF PROSPEROUS Racing in the Land of the Hindus Shows Healthy Growth English Importations Hare Gradually Dis ¬ placed Australian Horses From Position at the Top of the Heap There The turf in India is each year assuming a greater importance The sport is at the high point of its history at present A con ¬ siderable exodus from England to India on the part of horses jockeys and bookmakers takes place annually in November NovemberThe The layers are not admitted to all courses but they are allowed to operate at Calcutta I where the Viceroys Cup is run This race occupies the same place on the Indian turf as does the Grand Prix de Paris on the French turf or the Epsom Derby on the English The layers are licensed Their operations are enormous They usually re ¬ turn to England in April loaded down with gold for they do not work to lose loseThe The mutucls operate concurrently with the books at Calcutta At other tracks the mu tuuels alone are allowed These courses in ¬ clude Bombay Poona Madras Meerut Luck now and Bangalore BangaloreWith With the idea of winning the Viceroys Cup Indian owners have been buying highpriced horses at Newmarket for some years The principal one of these purchases is M Go culdas who won the St Leger two years ago with Caligula CaligulaENGLISH ENGLISH HORSES AVtJT HONORS HONORSBut But it is only recently that these English importations have been able to win the classic of the Indian turf Previously it was always the Australian horses that defeated their opponents and this probably explains to some extent the strange provision in the conditions for the new stake at Bombay that these horses shall concede two pounds to horses from Europe It is a hereditary penalty for the victories of their ancestors There as here the cult of what has been rules rulesBut But at the epoch of the Australian vic ¬ tories Indian owners were paying little for the horses they imported from England It was an Irish gelding Mayfowl which was not eligible to the English Stud Book that determined the Indian buyers to desert the Australian market for the English EnglishTliis Tliis Mayfowl won the Viceroys Cup three times in a row for M Apcar and then ran a dead heat in the fourth year yearSince Since then the English importations have been almost always victorious but as in all countries it has not always been the highestpriced horses that have won wonJIOTJBAIX JIOTJBAIX COMPARATIVELY EXPENSIVE EXPENSIVERoubaix Roubaix the latest of these importations to cover himself with glory in India was a comparatively expensive horse The ac ¬ climation rather than the voyage there plays the chief role in determining the success or failure of horses taken to India It is worth noting that those which do not run often are the most successful The terrific heat simply wears out the ones that face the starter often The same situation holds in Spain where the leading winners seldom race more than seven or eight times a season seasonIt It is evident that horses like men should be handled differently in different climes But the thoroughbred is after all possessed of far more endurance than AVC are willing to believe here In the Antipodes they are faced with interminable journeys in going from meeting to meeting often only a few days or a few hours after they have de ¬ barked from a long ocean voyage The whole thing is to handle them judi ¬ ciously As long as a horse had no fever said old Baresse you can ask anything of him as soon as the thermometer shows the slightest fraction above normal stop And of course one must see that he does not eat his head off Viator in Le Jockey
