124 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



sedate old Scotsman, " fillies are such kittle cattle 

 that it does na dae to trust them ower far," and 

 the man was not far wronof in offerino: such an 

 opinion. It is a characteristic of their sex to be 

 fickle, and the Oaks is run at a period of the year 

 when such horses may prove most unreliable ;, 

 hence it is that there is less gambling on the 

 race than takes place on other equine competitions. 

 If a man thinks his filly good enough to win, and 

 is desirous of backing her, he delays his invest- 

 ment till he sees her at the post. 



Whispers of occasional frauds in connection 

 with the Garter of the Turf have, however, been 

 heard, and every now and again it has been held 

 " as curious, to say the least of it, that fillies which 

 ran badly in the One Thousand Guineas should 

 alter their form so much in the Oaks," and vice 

 versa. Once or twice ugly tales have been told 

 about owners who were "open to conviction"; 

 in particular, it was said a few years ago, re- 

 garding a gentleman who " stood " to win, and 

 did win, a very large stake over a horse which he 

 had entered for the Derby, that in order to make 

 sure of his being paid his winnings over that race, 

 he would " require " (so he was told by his com- 

 missioner, if we may credit the story) to give up 

 his chance of winning the Oaks, which race 

 seemed to be as like a gift to him as the race for 

 the Blue Ribbon proved to be. " Well," said an 

 experienced racing man, " the story may be quite 

 true ; one never can tell exactly how the under- 

 currents of the turf are running, but you may be 

 quite sure of one thing, and that is, that no one 

 connected with the little arrangement would ever 

 open his mouth about it to an outsider. Such 



