82 THE RACING WORLD 



two handicaps worth £()S7 together, my plater 

 won a little handicap worth jC^97' ^^^ i" ^^^ 

 others was beaten a head and a neck. The other 

 two-year-old I had bought from my soldier 

 associate won ^C^SS? ^^^ ^^^ selling race was of 

 ;;^200. That was ^^2,534 in stakes, and I was 

 considered to have done extraordinarily well. My 

 expenses for the (roughly speaking) year and a half 

 that I had been racing were nearer ^6,000 than 

 jr5,ooo, and there was the price of the horses to be 

 added. By betting I had won about ^1,200, so 

 that it will be seen that " doing extraordinarily well" 

 does not mean making money — only of course the 

 start may be the most expensive part of the 

 business, as, beginning with yearlings as I did, for 

 a tinae there is nothing coming in. Not seldom 

 nothing comes in later ! 



Disappointment usually predominates over 

 success ; and yet on the whole there is something 

 peculiarly fascinating in the owning of horses. I 

 suppose the desire is born in one. I have been 

 racing for about thirteen years, and so far as, being 

 a bad hand at figures, I can make out I am 

 between ^^9,000 and ^10,000 poorer in con- 

 sequence ; but — this is the aspiration always before 

 one — I may land a happy coup some day and get 

 home ! 



