334 A MIRROR OF THE TURF. 



" And who the deuce is Billy Mitchell, may I 

 ask ? " 



" Oh, Billy is your jockey's commissioner, 

 don't you know." 



The commissioner, on the occasion referred 

 to, did not back The Chanter, which only came in 

 third ; his orders were to back Billy Purves, which 

 proved to be the winner. Was the owner of The 

 Chanter victimised by his jockey on the occasion, 

 or was the information simply withheld that there 

 was a better horse than his colt among the 

 starters ? Numerous incidents of a similar kind 

 might be related, and it has been said again and 

 again that there are even men of position on the 

 racecourses of the kingdom who delight in doing 

 commissions for jockeys. Said one of these 

 gentlemen one day to a prominent owner sports- 

 man : " Well, your horse won't win ; your jockey 

 has backed The Starling," and so it happened. 

 No positive accusations are here made against 

 individuals ; but a turf system which admits of 

 jockeys riding one horse and backing another 

 animal in the same race to win them a large 

 stake, is, to say the least of it, susceptible of 

 some improvement ; but where all, with but 

 few exceptions, are preaching a gospel of 

 gambling, reform seems, at the present time, to 

 be far off. 



Three or four trainers are also known as 

 heavy " speculators," and of some stables, of 

 which it is said the principal patron does not bet, 

 the same cannot be said of the trainer, who is 

 likely enough a very heavy betting man, all the 

 more because his chief employer does not himself 

 bet. It has been sometimes said, indeed, of such 



