OUR COMMISSION ON THE GOODWOOD STAKES. 253 



named the amount and my price, and in the course of the 

 same day was informed by my worthy commissioner, " Rather 

 than you shall not be on, Mr. Day, I will lay you the money 

 myself." A similar thing occurred with the same horse and 

 the same person for the Goodwood Cup. The horse was first 

 favourite before a shilling of my commission was executed. 

 But I changed the face of things by informing this worthy on 

 the night before the race : " I shall not run the horse here in 

 this case ; I shall keep him for the St. Leger." And again it 

 was found my money could be speedily put on for me at my 

 own price. 



Now, in both these cases, it cannot be for a moment doubted 

 that the money had been actually put on the horse, but the 

 particulars had not been handed in to the principal ; and so 

 long as the horse kept well it was never intended that they 

 should be. On the other hand, had the animal been taken ill and 

 died, the account, circumstantially stating how every shilling 

 had been laid out, would as assuredly have been sent in to 

 me. In sum, had it not been for my firmness, I should have 

 seen the horse win both races without a guinea on him in 

 either of them. Nor would the pecuniary loss have been all ; 

 my friends would have blamed me for selfishly keeping all the 

 money to myself, and no statement to the contrary, though 

 true in every particular, would have been accepted. As it 

 turned out, people thought that in both cases I had received 

 double the odds I had given them. 



One other more recent instance in respect to the Goodwood 

 Stakes must suffice. Our commissioner at the time was re- 

 quested to back a horse for that race for ^1,000 immediately 

 after the publication of the weights. Between this period 

 and the declaration of minor forfeits there was a great deal 

 of betting, our horse standing at 50 to i. On the latter 



