SELLING RACES 125 



Tammany"), received ;^ioo for the stake and had to 

 pay ^1,485 to retain his horse. Banquet II., as was 

 thus made evident, was regarded by his owner as 

 worth at least some ;^ 1,600 ; but let us see what 

 happened in this typical case. Notwithstanding his 

 appearance as a "plater," the horse was entered for a 

 ^2,000 stake, and beaten ; he ran again in a race of 

 character, and again suffered defeat ; after which 

 another coup was attempted in a selling race. This 

 time it miscarried. The horse was beaten a length by 

 an outsider and promptly " claimed." 



This is another risk run by owners who wish to 

 gamble on selling platers. A rule of racing says that 

 " all other horses starting " [other than the winner, that 

 is] "may be claimed for the selling price phts the 

 value of the stake or plate by the owners of horses 

 running in the race or their authorised agents." 

 Claims may be made by owners according to the 

 places their representatives obtain ; thus the owner of 

 the third has priority of claim for the horse that ran 

 second. In this case Banquet was entered to be sold 

 for ^200 ; the stake was worth another ^200, so 

 that he was claimed for ^400 ; just a quarter of what 

 has been shown to be his owner's lowest possible 

 estimate of his worth ; and of course the money betted 

 on him, doubtless a heavy amount or the gamble 

 would not have been remunerative, was also lost. It 

 will be seen from this example how dangerous a game 

 it is. The owner of the exploited plater must bet 



