234 ^ Morning at Newmarket 



horses near him there is perchance one with enough left in 

 him to make it possibly necessary to sit down and finish. 



How much that head to the good or bad may mean ! 

 The wanderer recalls the delight with which he has 

 watched the ' good thing ' come off — the good thing 

 that means a copious replenishing of an exhausted 

 banking account ; half a dozen hunters, perhaps, when 

 hunting had seemed sadly problematical ; payment of 

 debts that pressed most inconveniently and threatened 

 disaster. Far more frequently he remembers the 

 sickening sensation he has felt when, at the distance, 

 the rider of the still better thing — the ' certainty ' that 

 could be demonstrated to have at least a stone in hand 

 by the most moderate computation — grew uneasy on his 

 horse, drew out at length the fatal ' flail ' which so rarely 

 does any good — and so frequently a great deal of harm — 

 and, struggling gamely but hopelessly, was beaten out 

 of a place. He is a very unwise man who trusts his for- 

 tunes to the legs of a horse ; for, as has been said, the 

 ' Kacing Calendar ' is mainly a record of good things that 

 have not come off. The amateur speculator in the odds 

 inevitably has the worst of it in the long run, particularly 

 if, by having a little the best of it for a time, he acquires 

 a dangerous confidence in his luck or judgment — to 

 whichever of the two he may attribute his success. It 

 is a bad game, the odd thing about it being that so 

 many who fully recognise the fact continue to play it. 



There was once a man who went to Australia to seek 

 his fortune, and who, after long and arduous struggles 

 and privations, succeeded in his endeavour. He came 

 back to England, where things did not go well with him, 

 and at length it came to the point that all his future 

 depended on a mare he had in the Cesarewitch. He 



