2 26 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



later in the foremost ranks of the bettnig ring. 

 Davis speedily discovered in his own case that 

 " backing " horses, unless in exceptional instances, 

 could never be profitable, no matter how generally 

 fortunate he might be in selecting winners ; he 

 therefore speedily forsook that mode of betting 

 and began " making a book," laying at first the 

 odds to small money only to his fellow w^orkmen. 

 At the time indicated he was in the service of 

 Cubitt & Co., the great builders, as a journeyman 

 carpenter. 



The " Leviathan's" plans received a fillip from 

 the fact of his being engaged in the erection of 

 the subscription rooms at Newmarket. Cubitt 

 & Co., his employers, being contractors for the 

 job, he had therefore congenial surroundings, 

 which confirmed him in his resolve to make 

 money by means of horse-racing. The chief 

 meetings held at the turf metropolis took place 

 while the rooms were being built, and as Davis 

 had taken lodgings in the house of a stable 

 helper, he was thus enabled to obtain more 

 reliable information of the doings on Newmarket 

 Heath than he might otherwise have been in a 

 position to get. This enabled him to lay the 

 odds and back horses with a greater certainty 

 of winning both ways, a plan he adopted with 

 considerable success. As he said to a friend, 

 "when I got to know, which I often did, that 

 a horse was not doing the right sort of work 

 for a particular race, I tried all the more to lay 

 the odds against it ; on the other hand, I backed 

 any horse that I was told was taking proper 

 exercise. It is a fine thing for a small betting 

 man as I was then to be able to handle the stick 



