196 THE RACING WORLD 



the air." They appear also, in some mysterious 

 way, to pervade the whole racecourse. I mean 

 this : Years ago, a good many years now, I had 

 not made my way to Tattersall's, and betted in 

 rings that were frequently a long way from 

 that enclosure ; but next day, in comparing the 

 prices I had laid with those quoted in the 

 papers, I was nearly always struck by their 

 almost exact similarity. The laws of supply and 

 demand regulate this as they do most other 

 businesses. I remember reading somewhere of a 

 man looking at the horses going to the post, 

 and saying to a bookmaker, " Why, the favour- 

 ite's lame, isn't he .? " The fielder, not even 

 glancing in the direction indicated, answered, 

 " I should not know if I looked, but I shall 

 soon know without looking." This struck the 

 writer of the anecdote as odd, I suppose, or he 

 would not have written it ; but really there was 

 nothing in the least strange about it. If the 

 favourite were lame there would be a general 

 disposition to back something else, this other 

 would consequently shorten in price, and, equally 

 as a matter of course, the odds against the fav- 

 ourite would lengthen. Supply and demand ! 



What the bookmaker's clerk does everyone 

 probably knows. It is his duty to write down 



