RACING ROGUERIES. 295 



Otherwise stupefy their horses, so that in some 

 future race they may get their animals appor- 

 tioned a weight far below what they ought to 

 carry. To cheat the handicapper is thought to 

 be fair orame, to bring: off " certainties " is a 

 matter of weight ; horses, therefore, are run with 

 the view of getting off weight, and at this branch 

 of their business some owners and trainers 

 exercise great patience, and will wait year after 

 year in order to pull off a good thing. 



There are so-called "gentlemen" on the turf 

 who will bribe a telegraph clerk in order to obtain 

 news of a trial that may have been sent over the 

 wires, or suborn a stableman of a popular stable 

 in order to know what is doing in it ; they will 

 even connive with a bookmaker's assistant in 

 order to get an inkling of his employer's com- 

 missions. Indeed, there are gentlemen now on 

 the turf who do not scruple, when opportunity 

 offers, to take advantage of their friends and daily 

 companions by laying odds against horses which 

 they know will not win, or have no chance to win 

 even if they run; and there are "gentlemen" 

 who lend themselves to bookmakers to do their 

 commissions, who will either back or lay a horse 

 at their bidding. These toadies of the book- 

 makers, and they are more numerous than is 

 supposed, never question the morality of what 

 they do, but do as they are bid to do, and ask 

 no questions. These mercenaries have no 

 scruples against being "put in" by the book- 

 makers to lay as much as they can against the 

 chances of a horse which will not be wanted, or 

 to obtain the longest possible odds against a 

 horse which it is known will ultimately " come " 



