198 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



rate of odds now offered by bookmakers. In 

 the case of Surefoot, that did not win the Derby 

 of 1890, the odds laid on that horse at the 

 start required the investment of ^90 to win £\o, 

 a luxury that only people with more money than 

 brains were able to afford. 



In the turf market the bettors — the backers 

 are here meant — have, of course, the worst of 

 the deal throughout, the money risked finding 

 its way into a very few hands at the end of 

 the chapter. Backers come and backers go day 

 by day, but the bookmaker, who plays a prudent 

 part, holds his place and strengthens his position 

 more and more. Those familiar with the incidents 

 of bettinof know full well that not one backer 

 of horses in every hundred can live at " the 

 game." Most bookmakers see ninety-nine of 

 their clients go down, many of them with great 

 rapidity, the kind, for example, that come on 

 Tuesday morning and are squeezed out by Friday 

 afternoon. Others prolong the struggle for a time 

 by being able to fight a stronger battle, being, 

 perhaps, more prudent or better provided with 

 capital. Few of those who in any one year 

 begin to back horses with the running of the 

 Lincolnshire Handicap are able to live at the 

 business to the date of the Cambridgeshire, 

 which is the last " ereat " race of the season. 



Every now and again " plungers," as they are 

 called in the slang of the period, make their 

 appearance in the betting rings and carry on 

 their betting with an enormous flourish of 

 trumpets. The financial feats which they per- 

 form in backing horses are frequently chronicled 

 by the sporting press, and thus it is we learn 



