TOUTS AND TIPSTERS. 131 



the animal from 'the book' — i.e., one or other of tho 

 annual or weekly turf-guides now so numerous. 



The performances of each horse are set down with 

 great accuracy in these repositories of turf knowledge, 

 and for a few pence or a shilling or two they are open 

 to all, so that there is nothing to prevent a man from 

 becoming his own tipster. There are, of course, occa- 

 sions when ' the book is a lie,' and therefore of no use, 

 when a horse that has been running badly suddenly 

 recovers its form and improves all at once some sixteen 

 or twenty-eight pounds. No wonder, when such re- 

 surrections take place, the anxious prophets find them- 

 selves ' down in the dirt.' Even tipsters who supply 

 a dozen papers, and give a different winner in each, 

 are often on such occasions ignominiously ' floored.' 

 On some days the followers of a tipster may be for- 

 tunate, and back perhaps five out of seven of the 

 winning horses in that day's racing, at such odds a,s 

 are now allocated to the persons who do their business 

 at what is called ' starting price,' which many people say 

 is the price ' arranged ' by certain persons who, being 

 themselves extensive layers of the odds, put the figures 

 at a point that will save their own pockets. Be that, 

 however, as it may, backers of any particular man's tips 

 are sure to come to grief, despite such brief glimpses 

 of sunshine as they may occasionally experience. 



How is it, will be asked by those who study the 

 racing news given in the daily papers, that tipsters 

 occasionally perpetrate such egregious b hinders by 

 selecting horses to win that in the end are nearer last 

 than first ? Take the case of the Oaks a few years ago, 

 when awell-knowu special correspondent of a sporting 



9—2 



