who often carries off the
short polo pony sprints. Occasionally there may be a thoroughbred
entered who has been found wanting at Palermo or Hurlingham, but these
are few and not always successful, as the longest races do not often
exceed about a mile and a-half. As the weights correspond to
steeplechase weights at home the jockeys are practically always
amateurs, and a large percentage of "owners up" is always found. Young
mayor-domos who have never ridden at a meeting before often find
themselves ranged alongside of Grand National riders at the start, and
some amusing incidents have occurred, though there is some very good
amateur riding to be seen as well.

The betting is on a smaller scale generally than at the native meeting,
and is often conducted by someone setting up as a public bookmaker; at
other times a "sport" is formed after the fashion of Palermo. Also the
auction of all entries before the start of the races in the American way
is a great favourite; the total receipts for each race are divided
proportionately between those who bought the winner and "placed" horses.

There is opportunity for a little horse-dealing too, and many good polo
ponies to send home or play in the tournaments have been picked up in
this way. The shorter races for ponies under polo height give an
opportunity to the polo player, and the mayor-domo who cannot train his
ponies for longer distances, to try the mettle of their mounts against
outside and purer blood.

Nowadays most of the entries are trained to some extent, though not
many go to regular training establishments. To have a reasonable chance
of running well in the longer races, however, it is necessary to have
your mounts in stable exercised regularly and fed on corn. It is only
quite lately, however, that even so much training has been adopted at
all generally. In the old pioneer days of English estancias, when these
clubs were formed, they raced ponies taken straight off grass and kept
fit by riding the regular rounds of camp and stock.

There are many tales of the great "rags" that happened in those days,
and curious incidents of racing, too. On one occasion a winner of a polo
pony race was objected to as over height. The measurement was to be
taken after the end of the meeting; and it must be remembered that all
ponies out in the camp are unshod. The man who had come in second went
round to the stables before the measuring and noticed in the winner's
stall a number o