286 THE RACING WORLD 



times by " impossible horses," he is tolerably 

 certain to lose his head, take to plunging, and 

 come to grief. 



I well recollect going to a certain July meeting 

 at Newmarket with an enthusiastic young backer 

 who had been carrying all before him. I was 

 doing it from London that year, so was he, and a 

 couple of other experienced racegoers were in the 

 carriage. We all knew each other, and the 

 plunger showed me his book. He was betting 

 high — £100 on a horse was an exceptionally small 

 wager ; there were ;f 1,000 to 300, 500 to 200, 

 500 to 400 on, an even 500, and other bets of the 

 sort, nearly all on the right side, and he was 

 jubilant. It seemed to him the easiest thing in 

 the world to back winners, and he had quite made 

 up his mind about most of the races on the day's 

 card. In one of them there was a horse who 

 seemed sure to win — as sure as anything can be 

 racing — if he stood, but it was a shade of odds on 

 his breaking down. Our plunger pronounced 

 such a fear to be ridiculous nonsense — he was 

 going to have a monkey on, and chance it. (The 

 animal started at 11 to 10, won, and broke down 

 badly as it passed the post.) 



As we left the carriage and the favourite of 

 fortune gaily drove off, one of my friends said, 



