184 THE MERRY GEE-GEE 



clearer of wrong uns. It is not because 

 gatekeepers don't know them ; it is because 

 managers and clerks of courses, in their 

 anxiety to secure gates resulting in divi- 

 dends, wink the other eye, and so the 

 game goes on. 



Bookmaking is not quite the golden 

 game the uninitiated set it down to be, 

 and few bookmakers amass anything like 

 the fortune ascribed to them, nor do such 

 fortunes bear favourable comparison with 

 those amassed by men in commercial and 

 other walks of life. Of course, the book- 

 maker lives out of the backer, as does 

 also indirectly the whole racing institution 

 of the country and a good portion of 

 railway profits and the sporting press. 



Owners of horses run for very little 

 more money than is subscribed by their 

 own entry and other fees in races 

 cleverly constructed by wily clerks of 



