54 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



colt was by no means among the first. Yet so 

 adroit was Captain Yernon in hedging his bets, that 

 if one of the two colts that made it a dead-heat had 

 beaten, our master would on that occasion have won 

 ten thousand pounds ; as it was he lost nothing, nor 

 would in any case have lost anything. In the lan- 

 guage of the Turf, he stood ten thousand pounds to 

 nothing ! a fact so extraordinary to ignorance and 

 so splendid to poverty ! ' 



Holcroft began betting next morning, and by the 

 end of the week had lost half a year's wages. 1 



' In 1824, Robinson the jockey made a wager (in 

 which he obtained good long odds) that he would in 

 that year, and within the week, win the Derby and 

 Oaks races, and also get married: all three some- 

 what problematical occurrences, the chances of suc- 

 cess as regards the two first events being a matter 

 determined by a mathematical calculation, and the 

 latter, we presume, being almost reduced to a cer- 

 tainty by previous courtship. Of course the chances 

 were in favour of those who laid odds, but on 

 this occasion the odds were floored; for Robinson 

 won the Derby on Cedric, the Oaks on Cobweb, and 

 his wife no, what we mean to say is, and he also 

 got married within the week.' 2 



William Scott, who died in October 1848, was 

 another celebrated jockey, who, in his day, had no 



1 Memoirs of TJiovias Holcroft. 



2 Horse-Racing, its History, &c. 



