BACKERS AND BACKING 165 



Everyone may not be aware of the fact, though 

 some people know it by experience, but ^50 is 

 often very hard to make and takes a great deal of 

 getting. Need it be said that Puntington is not 

 at all satisfied ? Why didn't he have five ponies ? 

 The operation would have been just as simple, it 

 is no more trouble to write down, and he would 

 have won ^125 instead of ^^50. Really and truly 

 he has simply thrown away £j$, that is what it 

 comes to ; at least he might have had what some 

 of the Ring are fond of calling " five score," other- 

 wise 100 to 20 — indeed, why not have gone for a 

 dash and taken 500 to 100 ? However, he has 

 made £50, which, as a matter of fact, he rather 

 wanted, and the thing is to run it up into some- 

 thing handsome. 



Into the paddock again. The numbers are being 

 fixed in the frame, and there emerges from the 

 weighing-room the ardent and impulsive young 

 Flightly, whom also Puntington knows well. 

 Flightly has a big brown horse called Boanerges 

 in the next race. His trainer is by his side, 

 saddle and weight cloth on his arm, but Flightly 

 catches sight of his friend and pauses to speak 

 to him. 



*' You had better get in before the price 

 shortens," he says. " I think it's a real good thing 



