252 



BETTING AS IT IS. 



It is my last wish to make sweeping assertions without 

 advancing facts in their support. I will therefore give a 

 few instances to show the modus operandi of those who 

 thus modestly feather their nests. 



In 1855, when the Metropolitan was a race on which there 

 was much betting, long odds being as a rule freely obtain- 

 able, I asked a very noted commissioner of the day to back 

 Pharsalus for the race for i^SOO in my behalf immediately 

 after the weights came out, the horse figuring in the 

 betting at all sorts of prices from 50 to i to 7 to i. He 

 returned me 8 to i —^4,000 to ;!^500. Now without his 

 aid, I could have obtained this ^^4,000 to ^100, or at the 

 utmost ;!^I50, showing a clear loss of ^350, simply through 

 putting the commission in his hands. In this case there 

 was no hedging for any one but the takers of long odds, in 

 which category the owner and his friends did not figure ; 

 although it is perhaps needless to say the trusty commis- 

 sioner did, having them in fact pretty well to himself It is 

 in this fashion that owners are made " to stand to be shot at." 

 The faithful commissioner has all the long odds, and lays 

 his patron the short ones ; and thus, as he proceeds, hedges 

 all his own money, and on all occasions stands, without a 

 chance of loss, to win a large stake on the success of the 

 horse he has backed for the owner and himself. 



In another instance in 1859, some time before the Two 

 Thousand, I asked my commissioner to back Promised Land 

 for me. But he declared this could not be done. " No one 

 will lay," he averred, " except at a very short and unfair 

 price." "Very well," I replied, "I shall not run him." It is 

 almost absurd to add that this had the desired effect. " How 

 much do you want to back him for, and what price will you 

 take } " came the rejoinder in the shape of a question. I 



