2 76 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



unable from some cause or other to make a 

 successful effort on a racecourse. Horses, like 

 human beings, it may be taken for granted, are 

 not always " i' the vein," and so owners and 

 trainers who calculate on success are often much 

 puzzled by results which they had not the pre- 

 science to anticipate. Many an animal good 

 enough to win a race by twenty lengths has 

 suffered defeat almost at the outset of the struggle. 

 In such cases trainers have evil times of it : should 

 the horse run up to the anticipation founded on 

 the trial, it is spoken of as a great animal ; 

 should it lose, the trainer may be looked upon 

 with suspicion or the jockey be blamed for losing 

 the race. 



" The chicanery of the turf," it has often been 

 said, " is boundless," but what is done is being 

 accomplished in a manner so refined, and at the 

 same time is so quietly done, that the outside 

 public have no chance of detecting it. Nor does 

 anything accomplished in the way of " polite 

 fraud " call for the interference of the police ; 

 betting is without the pale of ordinary law, so 

 that all concerned carry on the game with im- 

 munity from consequences. When what is called 

 "a great handicap coup" is achieved, it usually 

 happens that a greater number of persons will be 

 found to have backed the losers than the winner, 

 because it does not suit those who are " working 

 the oracle " to allow the real merits of the horse 

 they have planned to win with to become known 

 to all and sundry, for the very excellent reason 

 that in such a case it would come to a short price 

 in the betting, which would be altogether foreign 

 to the plans of those working the scheme. On 



