ADVANTAGES OF BACKING NOMINATIONS. 263 



throughout, no secret need be kept as to the merits of the 

 gre}hounds. You may have the best in the world, and 

 all the world may know it, and also that he is well : but it 

 availeth the public nothing; they can't back him.. They may 

 back the owner's nomination, and he, from prudential 

 motives, may run his dog in another and a worse, or in • 

 his own nomination. And if in racing, in the same way 

 the betting should be on the nomination instead of on the 

 horse, then and there would be an end to the career of 

 the tipster and the tout, and the horses at Newmarket, 

 Epsom, and elsewhere, might gallop, walk, or be kept 

 in the stable without reports of trials that never took place, 

 or of horses doing wonderfully well that are perhaps dead, 

 or if not dc facto defunct, are so to all intents and purposes 

 so far as their chances of winning are concerned. 



As for owners, they would scarcely be able to realise 

 at first the immense advantages accruing to them from 

 the change. They would be able to see their horses with- 

 out any one knowing that they even took an interest in 

 such an animal as a thoroughbred. And there would be 

 one other great change. Stable-boys would no longer have 

 inducements to betray their employer's secrets, or in other 

 ways be tempted from their allegiance ; for no information 

 would be needed, and promises would no longer be made 

 before the race of rich rewards afterwards, that were never 

 meant to be or never are kept. 



But I should observe that of recent years betting has 

 undergone a complete revolution. At present, the bookmakers 

 may in a restricted sense be styled backers ; for few now- 

 adays make a genuine book, but rather keep some particular 

 horses to represent their interest as well as " the field." The 

 limited state of the money-market, and the precedence 



