82 The Book of the Horse. 



Tlie theory of making a book so as to win in every event is extremely simple ; but the 

 practice depends on so many unforeseen circumstances that it is extremely difficult. For 

 example, the profit rests on the assumption that every loser will pay ; for if a man has so laid 

 his bets that he has ;{^8oo to receive and ;^500 to pay, his balance of profit will be entirely 

 upset if persons who owe him £^0O prove defaulters. When Wild Dayrell won the Derby, 

 in 1855, fourteen bookmakers who had laid against him defaulted, and, according to the 

 mild phraseology of the Sporting Gazette, " ceased to be members of Tattersall's." 



Paternal legislation, acting in the interest of shopkeepers with tills and householders with 

 plate, has successively put down with a strong hand various ingenious establishments by which 

 the chances of the turf were apparently brought within reach of the million ; so that every 

 man, woman, or child, who could beg, borrow, or steal half-a-crown, could back a favourite for 

 any great race. 



In 1850 and for several years afterwards lists of horses favourites for coming races were 

 put up at sporting public-houses, with the odds that the owner of the list was daily prepared 

 to lay against each, down to as low a figure as half-a-crown. 



Some of these were held by professional bookmakers, who had earned a considerable position 

 in the betting ring, and were the means of pouring a large amount of ready money into their 

 hands. The rich and honest list-keepers paid when some favourite that every one was backing 

 won, the dishonest levanted whenever fortune turned against them. 



" During the few years that the lists were in their glory," says a writer of considerable 

 authority on racing* " and especially at one kept by a celebrated bookmaker, known as Leviathan 

 Davies, at a little tavern called the ' Salisbury Arms,' leading out of the Strand, it was easy to 

 take the odds to a couple of thousand pounds about a Derby favourite," or to a pound or even 

 half-a-crown. Amongst the great wagers recorded is one in which Davies (who had been originally 

 a journeyman carpenter) laid Mr. Greville forty thousand to two against Teddington in the winter 

 of 1850-5 I. This bet was taken by Mr. Greville for Sir Joseph Hawley, and when Teddington came 

 to 5 to I, the Kentish baronet hedged by laying Davies 10,000 to 2,030 back, and thus stood 

 .£30,000 to nothing upon this three-year-old. The cherry jacket of Sir Joseph Hawley had hardly 

 passed the winning-post first in the Derby, when Davies ran up to Mr. Greville with a 

 cheque for iT 15,000, adding that the remaining half would be forthcoming at Tattersall's upon 

 the following Monday. In 1852 Davies laid in two successive bets, ;{^30,000 to ;^i,000 and 

 ;{^25,ooo to ;^ 1,000 against Daniel O'Rourke within a week of the Derby, which he won. But, 

 even apart from "the Leviathan," it was the easiest thing in the world for an owner to back 

 his fancy before Christmas for the coming Derby to win from fifty to one hundred thousand 

 pounds. 



" In those days the betting on the Derby and Chester Cup was enormous during the winter 

 which preceded the occurrence of these two races. It was confined to what were then known 

 as 'sporting circles,' and the outside public had little to do with the game. There were no 

 telegraphic wires, no training reports, no daily sporting papers, and few big handicaps. A 

 favourite for the Derby might be lame for months without going back in the betting ; and 

 Lord George Bentinck used to chuckle over a story to the eftect that he sent a noble friend of 

 his down to his training quarters, where a chestnut colt was seen to gallop in first-rate form, 

 which personated another chestnut colt quoted at a short price in the betting, but which, in 

 reality, was hopelessly broken down." 



• Triilh, I3tli FcV"-nnry, 1S76. 



