150 RACING. 



He did not seem to attract much notice, for except his 

 own attendants, who were engaged in saddling him, no one 

 appeared to trouble his head about him. At that moment 

 there passed one of my friends, who is remarkable for two 

 things the immense extent of his acquaintance with trainers, 

 head-lads, stable-boys, and the hangers-on generally of racing 

 stables ; and his persistent ill-success in backing horses. 

 Pointing to the colt, I asked if he could tell me his name. 

 One glance at the boy then busy with the girths, and another 

 at his card, was enough. ' Oh, yes,' he replied, * that's the 

 Ugly Duckling by the Drake out of Leda, bred and trained 

 down in your part of the world, old boy, and it don't seem to 

 have done him much more good than it has you ! ' with which 

 encouraging remark the punter strolled away to the ring and 

 his fate. 



So it comes to pass that I feel unusually excited, and listen 

 with more attention than is my wont to the shouts of the book- 

 makers, who wax more and more energetic as the hands of the 

 blue-faced clock draw close to the starting-time. * Two to one 

 on the field ! ' * Six to one, bar one ! ' There is evidently a 

 red-hot favourite. 



'St. Just by Aristides out of the Abbess, one of the best 

 Old Tom ever tried, and he's put some smart ones through the 

 mill,' says a man at my elbow in answer to my question what 

 it is they are taking such a short price about. 



Then the cry is heard : ' Any odds agen some of these 

 here outsiders ! Twenty ponies, the Ugly Doockling ; a 

 hundred to five the Doockling ! ' But I notice these offers 

 cease as a tall handsome man, whom I recognise as one of the 

 two who were on the Downs that memorable morning, strolls 

 slowly along the rails, making frequent entries in his betting- 

 book as he goes. I seldom bet, chiefly because I hate losing ; 

 but now I feel sorely tempted to back what I mentally call 

 ' my horse.' 



Shall I have a bit on ? I must and will. So 1 hasten to a 

 well-known bookmaker and inquire, ' How much that Duck- 

 ling?' 



