576 THE HORSE. 



no horse had dared to contend against him, started for the 

 St Leger with 5 to 2 in his favour. Did he win the race I 

 A horse with 50 to 1 against him came in the winner. 

 Another, who had not even been placed at the Derby, defeated 

 this unrivalled horse, wlio came in the last but one of eleven 

 that started. In the following year he reappeared at New- 

 market with such success, as to make it be believed, that not 

 a horse at Doncaster could have kept pace with him for fifty 

 yards together. He was then backed at great odds to run 

 at Ascot ; but on the day before the race he was carried 

 away, to the consternation of the backers, no one knew 

 wherefore, and never again was seen on the turf. Don- 

 caster had already become noted for exploits of a suspicious 

 kind. In the year 1832, at the commencement of the meet- 

 ing, it had become known that the proprietor of the Athe- 

 naeum gaming-house in London, as yet new to the public 

 honours of the turf, had purchased Ludlow, a horse in high 

 favour, for the St Leger, for 5000 guineas. Suspicion was 

 at once excited, and mistrust accordingly marred the sport 

 of the day. The gambler declared that all his intents had 

 been fair and honourable ; that he had betted L. 15,000 on the 

 horse ; and defied all the world to prove that he had betted 

 one guinea against him. 



The betting of jockeys and trainers, to avast amount, has 

 now become a sytem extensive, open, and avowed. It is no 

 longer the restricted and temperate betting, which prevailed 

 in former times, on horses in which the masters and employ- 

 ers of these people had an interest, but they must have their 

 Books as regularly as the boldest gambler of the course. 

 Now, here is a system which strikes at the very root of all 

 confidence in the affairs of the turf. What ! the horses of 

 sportsmen to be intrusted to a set of avowed gamblers, who 

 may have a direct interest in causing their defeat. What 

 confidence can be placed in a jockey on whose success in a 

 match with another horse he or his confederates may have 

 thousands depending ? Will he win in opposition to an in- 



