RACING ADVENTURERS. 229 



the horses entered in a race, and the greater 

 favourite a horse became, the more willing was 

 the "Leviathan" to bet against it; on many 

 occasions the sums he stood to lose were really 

 enormous in their amount. 



Davis, like other bookmakers, had his fortu- 

 nate and his unfortunate races. The Derby, for 

 instance, was one of the latter class of events ; 

 he was never fortunate in transactions entered 

 into in connection with that race. Upon the 

 occasion of Voltigeur winning the Blue Ribbon 

 he stood to lose nearly ^40,000 on his list 

 accounts, as well as having to meet many 

 liabilities for large sums in the ring and at 

 Tattersall's consequent on the victory of that 

 horse. The non-success of Hotspur in the 

 great Epsom event cost him, he was wont to 

 say, ^50,000, while the failure of Barbarian in- 

 volved the disbursement of about a plum ; and 

 in the year which was sacred to the victory of 

 Teddington he dropped a mint of money ; one 

 cheque alone written out and paid away on the 

 morning after the race was filled up for three 

 times "five thou" (^15,000). Again, the Derby 

 victory of Daniel O'Rourke necessitated his 

 parting with ^30,000, whilst one of Davis' bets 

 on West Australian was paid to Mr. Bowes, the 

 owner of that horse, in the shape of a draft 

 on the London and Westminster Bank for the full 

 amount. 



These big sums, however, were not all loss ; 

 he had the amounts he won over the other 

 runners to aid him in paying them, and as was 

 to be expected, he came every now and then into 

 the possession of great gains ; on one or two 



