RACING IN INDIA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 16

RACING IN INDIA

NEWS OF “TOD” HEWITT. Possibly because of the advertisement it receives through the colossal sweep promoted there, Calcutta, to tlie average racing man, represents the last word in racing. One who has just concluded n tour of India, in a letter to Sydney “Sportsman." draws a disappointing pen picture of this No. 1 racecourse in the land of rajahs. rubles, and rupees. The course is somewhat triangular in shape, with rounded corners, of course. Tlie horses nre racing away from tlie onlookers for too long to suit’ the Australian i«'< n of an ideally constructed course. Some 30 odd bookmakers operate at Hie meetings, and they arc boused in a seml-cireular shed arrangement at the back of the stand. They all sit at desks with their clerks, and a money handler at. each end. They do not call the odds, the prices being displayed on blackboards. The B.M.A. has nothing on tlie Calcutta bookies for solidarity, for tho prices of every horse show a remarkable similarity, and are dynamite of tho full horse power. “Tod” Hewitt, the ex-Ncw Zealander, is doing well with a string of over 40 horses. Ho proposes, however, to dispose of them all but three, which will be sent to Calcutta. A good story is told of Hewitt, who is something of a humorist, and exceedingly popular. The racecourse at tho model city of Mysore has a high netting fence round it as a protection from tigers. At night an armed guard is maintained, as the joekeys and many of the trainers reside at the club, a beautiful building which has boon erected by the committee of the race club. Hewitt decked himself out In a tiger skin and jumped tlie guard, who screamed, and, dropping his gun. broke the running record of the dull. There was great exeitement because of the tiger In the compound. and when the story leaked out, Howitt was carpeted by the committee. His description of the guard both before nnd after “the tiger" appeared, broke up the meeting, nnd amid roars of laughter the chairman told him to get out and cut out such tricks.