PART XIV. 



BETTING : THE THEORY AND PRACTICE EXPLAINED. 

 By the Author of 



'Horse Notes by Major C." and "Indian Notes 

 About Dogs." 



{Reprinted by permission from the ''"Aslant) 



Betting in England. — There are two systems of betting 

 known on the Turf in England: first, "backing horses," and the 

 second-, making a book or laying the odds. 



In the first, you place reliance on your own judgment from 

 what you know personally of the horse, or on what you may have 

 heard from other persons. In the second, you (theoretically) 

 make sure of gaining something whichever horse may win. To 

 take an imaginary case : If five horses were to run, and you could 

 bet £100 even money against each of them, you would only have 

 to pay on one whilst receiving the same amount for each of the 

 others, leaving you a balance of £300. But such a case could 

 hardly be met with, the backer of a horse getting, as a rule, the 

 odds, which vary in amount according to fancied probabilities of 

 success. 



To "make a book" you must bet a fixed sum, at the current 

 odds, against a sufficient number of horses to cover the 



amount of odds laid together with 

 a balance, which, after deducting 

 the stake of the winning horse, 

 will be your profit. To make this 

 clear let the first ten letters of the 

 alphabet represent ten horses at the 

 odds shown in the margin, and 

 suppose you succeed in laying 

 1,000 pounds against each of 

 them, the result would (omitting 

 fractions for simplicity's sake), 

 be as here given. If the favourite 

 A wins, you receive £1,518, i.e, 

 £2,018 mmus £500 the stake of A, and you have to pay 

 £1,000 to the backer of A, leaving a profit to you of £518. 

 If any horse other than A win, your profits are proportionate- 

 ly increased as the stake on it was less than that on A. 



