206 HORSES AND EIDING. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



BETTING. 



There is one subject wMcb. is not strictly or of 

 necessity connected with horses or riding directly, 

 but is indirectly so much mixed up with it, and 

 exercises such an influence on it, that a work such 

 as this is hardly complete without a chapter being 

 devoted to it, and that is the practice of betting. 



All the better breeds of horses are now influenced 

 by the class of thoroughbreds we breed, and these 

 are a good deal influenced by the class of racing in 

 vogue ; and racing owes a great deal of its existence, 

 and the dimensions it has attained, to the practice 

 of wagering. 



In treating of betting I do not propose to incul- 

 cate any particular view or opinion, but rather to 

 try and help to arrange the views and ideas which 

 are held, and which I cannot help thinking are at 

 present slightly, if not considerably, in confusion. 



I will in the first place point out that there 

 appears to exist a remarkable similarity, or rather 



