30 SPORTING STORIES 



Henceforward the tide of ill-luck always flowed steadily 

 against Davis at Epsom. Daniel O'Rourke is said to have 

 cost him ;^30,ooo, as he had been only "got" at lOO to i. 

 Catherine Hayes cost him about the same, and West 

 Australian ^^48,000, of which ^^30,000 went in a cheque to 

 Mr Bowes. 



On the St Leger and at post betting the " Leviathan " 

 was uniformly lucky. He had a great fancy too for 

 backing jockeys' mounts, and there his good fortune was 

 amazing. Fordham, "the Kid," was Davis's particular 

 favourite, and so highly did he think of both George's luck 

 and horsemanship that he often declined to lay against one 

 of his mounts. Like a good many other bookmakers, 

 Davis was no great judge of a horse ; but he had a 

 marvellously keen eye for detecting when they were in 

 trouble, and would keep on betting till they were close to 

 the post, and, if it were a very near thing, after they had 

 passed it. 



I never heard of his nerve failing but once, and that was 

 Bon Mot's Liverpool Cup year. He was just beginning to 

 fire heavily into this strange 3000 guinea impostor, when 

 he found himself compelled, in consequence of a nervous 

 headache, to close his book and sit down ; and, as luck 

 would have it, he won ^^3000 instead of losing nearly twice 

 that amount. 



He had laid heavily against Essedarius for the Cup, and 

 the anxiety affected his mind : he entirely lost his head, and 

 became so alarmed lest he should be unable to pay that 

 his health broke down, and on the morning of the race he 

 looked the mere wreck of his former self. The victory of 

 the little Irish outsider Bon Mot had the effect of a 

 restorative ; but Davis knew that he had had a warning, 

 and that the ceaseless anxieties of his business were 

 beginning to tell upon him. Although he had an iron 

 constitution and the lungs of a Stentor — it was said on his 

 retirement that he left his voice to Steel — his strength was 

 unequal to the tremendous strain which his business threw 

 upon him, and he had the good sense to lay down his 

 pencil for ever at the end of 1857. On the Friday in the 

 Houghton Meeting of that year he retired into private life. 



