54 THE BLUE RIBBON OE THE TURF. 



In a few 3'enrs he had quintupled its income. Admiral 

 Rous was in his day distinguished for the felicity of 

 his work as a handicapper, with which he took infinite 

 pains, watching horses that were supposed to be on 

 ' the dodge ' with an eagle eye, in order to prevent 

 their being apportioned a false amount of weight. 

 But in spite of his almost unceasing yigilance, the 

 Admiral was sometimes ' done ' by daring owners and 

 trainers, and on occasion some horse would be admitted 

 into a handicap at a stone or ten pound less weight 

 than it ought to have carried. The Admiral never 

 ceased to raise his voice loudly against the heavy 

 betting, which he maintained was the curse of the 

 turf and disgraceful to all concerned. But it was only 

 against those who wagered big sums he fulminated; 

 he did not object to betting on horse-racing on prin- 

 ciple. Against men Avho staked £20, or even £50 or 

 £100, nothing was said ; but when he heard of persons 

 winninsT tens of thousands, he used to maintain that 

 such sums could not be won honestly, and hs always 

 asserted Avith great earnestness that all such ought 

 to be ' warned off,' and in the case of such sums being 

 won by members of the Jockey Club, that they should 

 cease to belong to it. With regard to another pernicious 

 practice that attends modern horse-racing — namely, 

 the bestowal of large sums of money on jockeys for 

 winning important races — he also protested in vigorous 

 fashion, and with some degree of bitterness. His idea 

 of trainers and jockeys was not a high one, and he 

 never made pets of either; 'they should be kept in 

 tlieir places,' was his constant iteration when he heard 

 of fat^liionable horsemen being guests at clubs and 



