JUDGES AND JUDGING 137 



" What did that win by ? " a friend of the man 

 in the box asked him, as he descended to face a 

 wondering crowd. 



" Oh, a good neck," he repHed, adding in a 

 murmur to his friend, " T'lie first winner Fve backed 

 this week ! " 



No ! The anecdote is an amusing Hbel which 

 I am sure nobody accepts as true. So also, I sup- 

 pose, is the tale of a difficulty which is said 

 to have overtaken some judges — three I believe 

 do duty together — in the Argentine Republic. 

 The three gentlemen in question had a great 

 fancy for one of the runners — so the story goes — 

 and had backed it freely ; but though judges in 

 one sense they were not so in another, for the 

 certainty was beaten — certainties so often are — at 

 least a length. What was to be done .? They all 

 wanted money, they had got a good price, and to 

 pay instead of to receive was an inconvenience not 

 to be contemplated. The horse had not won, but 

 they would simply say it had and hoist its number, 

 one of them suggested — it was really quite an 

 inspiration — and up the number went accordingly. 

 But the affair was not so simple as it had seemed. 

 Argentina is a country where people carry re- 

 volvers, and where likewise they have a ready dis- 

 position to use them. A number of truculent sports- 



