RACING ROGUERIES. 273 



Such modes of dealing with race-horses are 

 now seldom resorted to, but frauds of a more 

 subtle kind are common enough. *' Nobbling " 

 of a rude description is a very dangerous game, 

 which requires confederates to ensure a successful 

 issue ; and a first-rate training stable is usually- 

 subjected to such careful watching, especially 

 when it contains a horse of celebrity, that strangers 

 as a rule cannot obtain access to it, and for a 

 stableman to betray his trust is dangerous — ruin 

 would assuredly follow the discovery of such a 

 breach of confidence. But, as an old-time hanger- 

 on of one of the Newmarket hotels was wont to 

 say, " it's all along o' the money ; them tenners 

 and fivers is at the bottom of all them there 

 swindles ; there's men about here as would kill 

 a hoss right out for a couple o' ponies." 



The magnitude of the sums betted against 

 particular horses gives rise to temptation. Cer- 

 tain bookmakers will lay from ten to twenty-five, 

 or even forty thousand pounds upon occasion, 

 against each of half-a-dozen horses entered to 

 run in an important handicap, and if the one 

 or two of these animals which appear most 

 likely to win the race can — if they have been 

 well backed — in some way be rendered unfit 

 to run, so much the better for those who have 

 laid the odds. Under such circumstances, a 

 horse has sometimes been bought on behalf of 

 a bookmaker and his confederates, so that its 

 losing the race may be made certain. Backers, 

 unaware of the sale, continue to "fancy" it, 

 till the transaction becomes profitable to the 

 purchaser, who keeps the animal well to the 

 front in the market, and continues personally, 

 and by the aid of confederates, to bet heavily 



