PARI-MUTUELS AT YORK 175 



I was interested in the novelty and went out and put 

 2s. 6d. on Rose of Athol for the Great Yorkshire Stakes 

 in each of the machines. They did not, as under present 

 conditions, pay on an average of their takings, but made 

 their returns independently, though I believe all the 

 machines were in the same ownership. This idea was 

 not a bad one, for it gave variety to the attraction, some 

 showing better odds than others against your fancy, 

 whatever it might be, and for that reason I tried them all 

 with my Rose of Athol half-crowns. The daughter of 

 Blair Athol and Violet won easily from Ringwood Field- 

 Marshal and others, and the average return for my half- 

 crowns was 15 to i, while in the ring she had started at 

 8 to i. 



These pari-mutuel machines were taken to one or two 

 other race meetings, but inasmuch as they were located 

 in public places, outside enclosures, the proprietors were 

 prosecuted as rogues and vagabonds, using instruments 

 of gambling, and convicted. That a pari-mutuel register 

 is not an " instrument of gambling " any more than is a 

 betting-book ought to have been sufficiently obvious, and 

 it is practically certain that a pari-mutuel inside a club 

 or club enclosure is as legitimate as a club sweepstakes 

 on the Derby. 



There was a first-rate field for the York Cup on the 

 day when Rose of Athol won her race. Shannon won that 

 Cup from Agility and Gertrude, Dutch Skater, for whom 

 the distance was not far enough, being unplaced. It is 

 intended, after the war, to revive the York Cup, and that, 

 too, over the old two-mile course. 



The star of Blair Athol was well in the ascendant in 

 1871, for though Rose of Athol got no nearer than fifth 

 for the St Leger, the magnificent Prince Charlie came out 

 for the Middle Park Plate, and won it after making all the 

 running. Laburnum ran a close finish with him, but 

 Prince Charlie had been stopped in his work, a week or so 

 before the race, and never again would Laburnum have 

 got near him. Baron Rothschild, however, who was 



