72 



THE RACING WORLD 



If backers made this resolution never to lay odds 

 I think there is no doubt they would be richer, or 

 at any rate not so poor, at the end of the year ; 

 though when I say " made a resolution," of course 

 I mean if they made it and kept it, which is really 

 a very different thing ; the first part of the pro- 

 ceeding being so very much easier than the second. 

 There are certain fixed rules with regard to the 

 backing of horses which most men who go racing 

 know well, and break on an average about four 

 times in an afternoon. One of them is only to 

 back one horse in a race, with perhaps, on 

 occasions, a " saver " on the favourite, or on. some- 

 thing else which they have cause to look on as 

 particularly dangerous ; and another, never to back 

 a horse unless they have some really good reason — 

 that is to say, what they believe to be a good reason 

 — for fancying it. But the worst of these admir- 

 able rules is that they so often come out wrong in 

 practice. It was in the Badminton Magazine that 

 I read a story, two or three years ago, which is so 

 pertinent to the subject that I am tempted to repeat 

 it on the chance of the editor not striking it out. 

 I have not by me the number in which it was 

 published, but the gist of it was that a man went 

 to Ascot having made up his mind that he would 

 not fritter away ponies and fifties, with occasional 



