Home
● Sitemap ●
Reference ●
Last
updated: 11-March-2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Horse racing a great entertainment and hobby for the race horse
owning upper classes, but avidly followed by many all over the city, not a few
had money invested in it in forms of bets.
Trams :—Kidderpore, Alipore, Behala.
Buses :—Nos. 3A,
12, 12B.
The Calcutta Race Course, said to be the finest in the
world, was constructed in 1819, and is now under the control of the Royal Calcutta
Turf Club, a public body which came into being in 1861. It is situated at the
southern end of the Maidan, and is bounded on the
east by the Victoria Memorial, on the south by Lower Circular Road, and on the
west by Kidderpore Road. A remarkable feature of this
course is that an uninterrupted view of the racing can be obtained from any
point; other attractions include the Serpentine tank, the beautiful undulating
lawns, and the band that plays on every race day.
The course is almost triangular in shape and consists
of the Winter, the Training, and the Monsoon Tracks,
the first-named measuring about 1 mile, 5 furlongs and 58 yards.
The Racing Season in Calcutta consists of four meetings
of twenty-two days, known as Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, held from
November to March, and the Monsoon Meeting, consisting of eight days, held from
July to September. The first three days of the Autumn Meeting are run on the Barrackpore Race Course.
There are three enclosures, namely, the Grand, the
Monsoon and the Eastern. Entrance to the Grand Enclosure is by C Gate,
admission to which is Rs. 6 in the Winter
and Rs. 5 during the Monsoon Meeting. Season-ticket
holders enter by B Gate. The entrance to the Monsoon Enclosure is by D Gate,
admission Rs. 2/8/-; and the entrance to the Eastern
Enclosure is by F Gate, admission Rs. 1/8/-. On the
King Emperor's and the Viceroy's Cup Days, admission to the Grand, Monsoon and
Eastern enclosures is Rs.
10, Rs. 3, and Rs. 2,
respectively. The entrance for members of the Royal Calcutta Turf Club is by
the Kidderpore Road Gate.
In the Grand Enclosure, the Club Stand, including the
Box space and lawn in front, and the first floor of the Reserved Stand, is set
apart for members of the Royal Calcutta Turf Club and guests introduced by them
; the ground and top floors may be used by Paddock ticket-holders. In this
enclosure the unit of betting on the electric totalisator
is Rs. 10, the minimum bet with the bookmakers being Rs. 30. In the Monsoon and Eastern Enclosures, the unit of
betting on the totalisators is Rs.
5 and Rs. 3 respectively. Every enclosure is provided
with refreshment rooms, service rooms and other amenities.
Great interest is attached to racing in Calcutta, as
the races for the Viceroy's Cup—the Blue Riband of
the Indian Turf—and the King Emperor's Cup, each carrying stakes or Rs. 50,000 and a cup valued at £ 100, are run here. In
addition to these, there are several other Cup events with attractive stakes,
which induce owners from all over India to enter horses, when the best blood
stock in the country compete.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)
Ballygunge
Riding School, near Ballygunge Maidan,
1 Bediadanga Rd. Rs. 3 for
1st hour, Rs. 2 for each added hour or part thereof.
Call Park 1162 to reserve a horse.
(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945: at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The King of Sports, horse racing. Royal Calcutta Turf Club,
actual racing at the Calcutta Race Course at the southern end of the Maidan. Racing meets start 18 Nov.
and continue every Sat. (plus holiday meets) until March - 25 days of
racing in all. Officers: No membership necessary; seats in Paddocks available
at Rs. 5; all privileges of members except rental of
boxes and member's bar - Military bar on top, however. E.M.: Seats in second
enclosure at As. 8. tea and cake served free as a
token of club's appreciation. (Racing at Tollygunge
Race Course from July until the Calcutta Course opens.)
(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945: at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
I also went to Calcutta to take a prisoner to a
prison to serve his sentence. While at Calcutta I went to a horse race
meeting, although I knew nothing about race horsing the Sergeant I was with
said he did. Anyway I finished winning more than he did!
(source: A3249047 War Experiences in Nigeria and Burma Edited at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
My
ward enjoyed the racing. I said, 'Don't go in for racing quite so deeply as your father.' Soon after I had left, he had
over two hundred horses in training and was winning all the best races with ‘Finalist’.
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
Reproduced under 'fair
dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Lord Trevelyan 1972)
I
arrived in India in the fall of 1944 and departed on Dec. 7th of 1945 on the
anniversary of Pearl Harbor, on the USS General
William Black.
My
tour of duty in the CBI was a member of the 73rd Ord. Depot Co., located in
Calcutta, India and I worked with the 809th Ord. Depot Co. (as part of the 12th
Ord. Bn.).
We
were housed at an orphanage in Dum Dum, a province of Calcutta and in the last six months of
my tour we moved to Camp Hialeah which was located in the very center of the Calcutta Race Track across from Queen
Victoria's Memorial. They were racing every day during the war. We were
sleeping on straw-filled mattresses in mud-built huts with straw roofs, plus
the daily dust, dirt and other waste of the race horses was not a pleasurable
place to be for "one's health."
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Arthur W. Sprankel & CBI Sound Off)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was an armourer with 67 squadron and we had just returned from Chittagong, we were at Alipore,
not on "readiness" but preparing to become operational. On I believe
the Saturday, less than 24 hours after our return the Japanese bombed Calcutta
in daylight. Although far from prepared we struggled to get some Hurricanes
into the air. I recall re-arming the Brownings of a
couple of aircraft and several got airborn.
Imagine the anger of the squadron from CO to the lowest erk when on the following Monday the Calcutta newspaper was
very scathing, "Where was the RAF, do they have the weekend off?”
It was decided to show these critics sat at home with their gins
that the RAF did exist.
On the following weekend a particularly important race meeting was
to be held at Calcutta racecourse, imagine the members chagrin when as the race
commenced Hurricanes appeared at nought feet "beating up" the racecourse.
Horses went everywhere and I believe the race was concluded in the slowest time
on record.
I saw no further criticisms of 67 or any other squadrons.
[…]
(source: A4040506 My Dads memories of 67 Squadron on the Arakan Penninsula at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Home
● Sitemap ●
Reference ●
Last
updated: 11-March-2009
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If there are any technical
problems, factual inaccuracies or things you have to add,
then please contact the group
under info@calcutta1940s.org