CHINESE SPORT.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 959, 14 April 1888, Page 3

CHINESE SPORT.

A Chinese horse-race is certainly suggestive of the ludicrous, buc no more so thin the reality, a3 given in the pages of a recent traveller in the dominions of the Brother of the Moon. "On the afternoon of the cup day at the Hong Kong races," says the writer, " the main road is taken possession of for miles by a swililycirculating mass of chattering, pig-tailed most uncanny-looking Chinese. Here we are at the entrance of the grand stand. The saddling-bell rings, the numbers are hoisted, a thud of hoofs announces a preliminary canter, As to the racing, it is beneath contempt. The ponies are from Australia, Japan or Ohufos —wretched weedy, groggy, under-sized brutes—while the amateur jockeys are principally conspicuous for the preposterous length of their their heavy weights and queer riding. A Very good racer, according to their standard, can be bought for about six guineas. Bat the races are only an excuse for gambling and drinking and betting ou the chances of the wretched screws taking the stakes, which are pretty considerable. The signal has been given, and they are off. Here come the borses. What a queer-looking lot the jockey? are ! How they are hunched up I How they throw their arms about ! How fiercely they flog! What diabolical faces, and how queer their pigtails 100k t floating in the wind from beneath their jockey-caps or falling over their silk jackets, for they are costumed en regie ! This is a race run by the grooms of Knglish settlers and is the best one of the meeting. 'Go it, Archer 1' 'Go it Fordham ?' shout their masters, by way of encouragement, and the yellow-skins scream and yell like frenzied madmen or enraged monkeys, until the goal is past, after which they strut about the course in their caps and' jackets, evidently immensely proud of their make up & VAnglais."