A Sportsman at Large 187 



head in front ; she literally " put her foot in it," and pitched 

 slightly. This enabled China Craze to score the turn (by the 

 narrowest of margins), and the next. Then High Crawler 

 dashed in and killed to lose ! 



This law is one which sorely puzzles the neophyte or " the 

 layman." " How," say they, " can a greyhound kill to 

 lose ? Is it not his (or her) business to kill at the first op- 

 portunity ? " 



Undoubtedly it is, and this is the one foul blot on the fair 

 sport of coursing. Unfortunately there is no remedy ! All 

 sorts of suggestions have been made, but not one that is 

 practicable. There it is ! You cannot tell your " longtail " 

 to abstain from bowling over his hare until he holds a winning 

 balance ! On the other hand, suppose a dog leads his op- 

 ponent two or three lengths, scores again, and then turns puss 

 into the jaws of the other. It would be cruel luck on the 

 vastly superior dog if the spin were accounted an " undecided " ! 

 No ! the issue must remain an example of the fortune of war 

 and a matter of luck ! They say that all sports are rendered 

 more piquant by the condiment of chance. 



As China Craze was beaten next round by one of the cracks, 

 I have no reason to suppose that I should have lifted The 

 Cup, even if High Crawler had met with better luck than that 

 which befell her in the third round. 



A Waterloo Cup winner in which I was greatly interested 

 from a personal, as well as a financial, point of view was 

 Pistol II., who triumphed in 1905. I and my son Denis were 

 hobnobbing with the owner (" Billy " Pawson), at The Banquet, 

 and when the card was called over we had been so impressed 

 with the dog's chance, as disclosed by Billy, that we backed 

 Pistol II. heartily, both at long odds (40 to I if I remember 

 rightly) and for the first ties. How he ran through the 

 stake is a matter of history. 



One of my earliest nominations in the Waterloo Cup was a 

 bd. d. p. called Cagliostro, whom I owned in partnership 

 with my friend, Sir William Ingram, of Illustrated London News 

 fame, whose brother \Valter had been my subaltern in the 

 Duke of Cambridge's Hussars. This was the best bred grey- 

 hound " as ever was," being by Greentick Miss Glendyne 



