THE " RAT-TAT " AND— OFF ! 



to tumble straigJit into the arms of a man who treated 

 him as a long-lost brother and was willing to put money 

 on for him to almost a limitless extent. 



On the Sunday the farce of keeping the assumed 

 mug away from the " boys " was adopted by the fly 

 flat, who had credit all round. The late Goffin, one of 

 the most prominent Belgian layers a few jears back, 

 was the chief bookmaker, and of course the F. F. did 

 all the commissions. 



In the two days — to make the story shorter than it 

 might be — the deficit was thirty-seven thousand francs, 

 and of course it was time for the transatlantic visitor 

 to say " hip-hip " and " off " it. He was going to 

 " see his bankers in London " and return for the 

 Thursday's racing. The bill at the Splendid was 

 paid, and the commissioner saw his client off. Would 

 you believe it, he fell for a French " pony " (five 

 hundred francs) on the deck of the boat ? It was a 

 (great exit, but the backer might have packed up 

 a parcel with a bit of luck. There was any amount 

 of talk afterwards. Gofiin and others went for their 

 money to the commissioner, and I never heard exactly 

 how it ended. 



There have been occasions when the bookmakers 

 over there have squealed at a genuine English raid 

 with a good horse, but they have grumblingly paid. 

 An instance of this was a few years back when Ouadi 

 Haifa won a race — after nearly falling down at one 

 stage of it. What a packet was won ! There are 

 stories of the real old days at Ostend, turf " yarns " 

 but true, which make one's hair stand on end ; and 

 then there is an inevitable feeling of envy that we were 

 not " in it." A certain English animal years ago got 

 a hundred yards' start — this was before Joe Marsh, of 

 course — and how that animal won makes no matter. 



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