A misty Saturday morning brought word of a sighting of the ghost of one of The Royal Calcutta Turf Club's former horses, who is still racing despite having long since lost her title as Queen of the Tracks.
The club is a horse racing organization founded in 1847 during the British rule. It became the leading runner for all horse racing in the subcontinent, setting the rules of the game and also organizing polo matches. The races at the Royal Calcutta Turf Club were considered the most vital social events and were always opened by the Viceroy of India.
Today, the Royal Calcutta Turf Club continues to operate as a private club and organises races at the Calcutta Maidan Racecourse, with most races taking place on Saturdays.
Ghost haunting Royal Calcutta Turf Club
Legend has it that a ghost haunts the aged tracks at the Turf Club. The ghost is not a human being, however, but a white horse that was once known as the Queen of the Tracks.
The story goes back to the 1930s when George Williams was enjoying his heyday, when racing at the Royal Calcutta Turf Club was high stakes and there was a lot of money to be made.
Williams was a man with an insatiable passion for horse racing. Williams, a regular at the Turf Club and owner of several horses, was known for his prized possession: a magnificent white stallion named Pride. Or whether Pride was really a stallion, sources differ, naming the horse sometimes as well.
Pride was no ordinary horse; he symbolized Williams' glory days on the racetrack, winning race after race with unmatched speed and grace. According to legend, Williams loved his horse more than anything else, including his own family, and spent all his time in the stables.
However, as time passed, Pride’s once powerful strides weakened and he began to show signs of age and frailty. Despite his failing fitness, Williams remained fiercely steadfast to his equine companion, refusing to retire him from racing. It is said that in the final match of the annual Calcutta Derby, the horse lost, and Williams lost a fortune that day.
Tragedy struck one fateful day when Pride was found dead on the racetrack. According to the story, the horse was found with gunshot wounds to the head and it was believed that Williams killed the horse because he was no longer winning races, according to tradition. Some even said that the horse was killed by a drunken frustrated Williams when he lost his money.
Sir William's White Horse Haunts the Track
But that wasn’t Pride’s last race, if the stories were to be believed. Locals whispered of seeing a ghostly apparition—a gleaming white horse—galloping across the racetrack on moonlit Saturday nights, its ethereal presence a poignant reminder of Pride’s untimely demise.
The locals know this spirit as “William Saheb and Sada Ghora” – Or “Sir William's White Horse.”
References:
A spooky walk around Kolkata… – The Write Space
Royal Calcutta Turf Club – Wikipedia
Image Source: Pixabay.com
