A QUEER RACER.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 769, 7 March 1865, Page 4

A QUEER RACER.

A HINT TO THE TTJEF CLTJB.

A Coerespondent sends us the following as being suitable for the present time, when the Nelson Turf Club is making preparations for the annual races. The extract is from a Californian paper;—

" Many years ago, the members of a racecourse near Brownsville, on the Monongahela published notices of a race, one mile heats, on a particular day, for a purse of one hundred dollars, free for anything with four legs and hair on. A man in the neighborhood named Hays had a bull that he was in the habit of riding to mill with his bag of corn, and he determined to enter him forihe race. He said nothing about it to any one, but he rode him around the track a number of times, several moonlight nights, until the bull had the hang of the ground pretty well, and would keep the right course. He rode with spurs, which the bull considered particularly disagreeable; so much so that he always bellowed when they were applied to his sides. On the morning of the race, Hays came upon the ground mounted on his bull. Instead of a saddle he had dried an ox hide, the head part of which, with the horns still on, he had placed on the bull's rump. He carried a short tin horn in his hand. He rode to the judge's stand and offered to enter his bull for the race ; but the owners of the horses objected. Hays appealed to the terms of the notice, insisting that his bull " had four legs and hair own," and that therefore he had a right to enter him. After a good deal of swearing the judges declared themselves compelled to decide that the bull had a right to run, and he was entered accordingly. When the time for starting arrived, the bull and the horses took their places. The horse-racers were out of humor at being bothered by the bull, and at the burlesque which they supposed was intended, but thought that it would be over as soon as the horses started. When the signal was given they did start. Hays gave a blast with his horn, and sunk his spurs into the side of the bull, who bounded off with a terrible bellow, at no trifling speed, the dried ox hide napping up and down, and rattling at every jump, making a combination of noises that had never been heard on a racecourse before. The horses all flew off the track, every one seized with a sudden determination to take the shortest cut to get out of the Bedstone country, and none of them could be brought back in time to save their distance. The purse was given to Hays. A general row ensued, but the fun of the thing put the crowd on the side of the bull. The horsemen contended that they were swindled out of the purse, and if it had not been for Hays' horn and ox hide, which he ought not to have been permitted to have brought on the ground, the thing would not have turned out as it did. Upon this Hays told them that his bull could beat any of their horses anyhow, and if they would put 1000 dollars against the purse he had won, he would take off the ox hide, and leave the tin horn and run a fair race with them. His offer was accepted and the money staked. They again took their place at the starting post, Hays gave the bull another touch with his spur, and the bull gave a tremendous bellow. The horses went away again, and Hays galloped his bull around the track again, and won the money."