THE TURF AND SOME REFLECTIONS 



lines of telephone, are largely used by connections 

 of certain gambling stables, by members of the 

 Stock Exchange, and among others by those who 

 adopt some silly pseudonym * to cloak, as they 

 vainly hope, their speculative interests in insig- 

 nificant races. To these classes and to the Post- 

 master-General their prohibition might be un- 

 welcome ; but the better type of bookmaker on 

 the race-course and the respectable adherent of 

 racing would rejoice in their extinction. 



Young Sidonia may splash large sums on an 

 outsider, and South Africa may occasionally launch 

 out with a few thousands, but the fashion of 

 individual heavy betting is dead. What would be 

 thought in these days of an owner who stood to 

 win £150,000 on his own horse in the Derby, which 

 was beaten, and at the same time won £30,000 on 

 another which proved successful, and who could 

 call his net winnings by betting in a single year 

 £100,000 ? Racing history records this of Lord 

 George Bentinck. Where are the owners who bet 

 as did Lord Hastings during his brief career on 

 the Turf, Mr. George Payne, Mr. Merry and Sir 

 Joseph Hawley ? Where is the bookmaker to-day 

 whose betting transactions bear any resemblance 

 to those of Davis ? Over the Derby of 185 1 

 Davis is said to have paid more than £100,000, 

 and without waiting for settling day sent Mr. 

 Greville a cheque for £15,000 twenty-four hours 

 after the race was run. The truth is the whole 

 scheme of betting has changed. There are now 

 no yearling books on the Derby ; no owner would 



I The Jockey Club has now prohibited racing under an assumed 

 name. 



