XIV.— BACKING HORSES 



When innocent neighbours ask for my advice 

 anent betting, I venture to say, " Better not." 

 The profits cannot be depended on with 

 certainty, losses are inevitable, and money in 

 pocket — it is an old story — is never out of 

 place. During the whole course of my riding 

 adventures I have given little serious atten- 

 tion to the subject suggested by our heading. 

 Jockeys are not supposed to back horses, of 

 course, being content to ride them — a far more 

 paying game; and, speaking for the majority 

 of cross-country confreres whom I have known 

 more or less intimately, I am able to bear 

 testimony to the fact that they have certainly 

 not striven to cut a brilliant figure in Tatter- 

 sail's enclosure. Their ambitions have been 

 more modest, more thoroughly in harmony 

 with their position. As one of those gallant 

 cavaliers remarked, with his hat on one side : 

 " We cannot expect to shine in two places at 



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