RACING ADVENTURERS. 225 



of the number who did so had not the wit, how- 

 ever, to keep the money they earned, and so 

 fell back to their original condition. Such was 

 the fate of Ridsdale, at one time racing partner 

 with John Gully and a man of wealth. Crockford, 

 as shall presently be narrated, began life as a 

 fishmonger, and in the course of his career 

 became a millionaire. In his young days Gully 

 was a butcher and afterwards a professional 

 pugilist ; Davis again was a carpenter by trade, 

 and flourished every day after becoming a betting 

 man, the excitement of which career suited his 

 temperament. Others of the bookmaking and 

 betting fraternity had beginnings equally humble : 

 some of them had been helpers in stables ; one 

 prominent man in turf affairs had driven a 

 hackney coach ; another had been footman at 

 one time in a gentleman's family, but by the 

 aid of turf chicanery became wealthy, and able 

 himself in time to keep a couple of footmen. 

 It is not possible within the limits of the present 

 volume, to include more than three or four 

 brief biographical sketches of the more prominent 

 of the racing adventurers who have earned 

 notoriety on the turf. 



Davis, " the Leviathan," as he was called in 

 racing circles, possessing a genius for the manipu- 

 lation of figures, ultimately became one of the 

 most successful bookmakers of his time, betting 

 to thousands in the ring and to the silver or 

 gold offered at his lists. As has been more than 

 once related, the future "Leviathan's" first bet 

 involved no greater risk than half-a-crown ; but 

 that sum, small as it was, turned out a prolific 

 parent, he who risked it being found ten years 



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