BACKERS AND BACKING 185 



wins easily from an outsider, the Esperance colt 

 stopping to nothing from want of condition, and 

 finishing a very bad third. To feel convinced that 

 *the strong favourite will not win, to have a confi- 

 dent belief that the second favourite will, to gather 

 from the market that there is no money for any 

 of the rest, that nothing is in the least fancied — 

 when things are thus is the time when the backer 

 really enjoys himself; and he needs such periods 

 of enjoyment, for on the whole backing horses is a 

 cruelly disappointing game. 



