B O OKMA KING. \ 7 5 



persons who have been so fortunate as to back the 

 horse which wins the race. 



The modus oj^evandl of bookmakino" and betting- as 

 it exists to-day may be expUiined as follows: A given 

 handicap, or other race, being set'for a particular date, 

 the bookmaker begins business by oft'ering to ' lay,' say, 

 by way of illustration, 20 to 1 on the field, ' the field' 

 meaning the whole of the horses engaged in the race. 

 There are pi-obably forty horses left in the race after 

 tlie acceptances for the handicap have been declared, 

 and a })crsnn may select any one of the lot he pleases, 

 and by pacing £1, or by promising to pay that 

 sum, he will receive £20 and (if he has paid it) his 

 own pound back, if the animal wdiich he selects Avins 

 the race. It will be apparent that, if every one of the 

 forty horses which have accepted for the handicap 

 Avas to be backed at 20 to 1, the bookmaker would 

 have £40 in hand with which to pay the £20 

 earned by the backer of the winning horse — a good 

 enough profit, it will be thought. But the stiite of the 

 odds is rarely so simple as has been indicated. The 

 public backers, or persons who are ' in the know,' as it 

 is called, of the form, private or public, of some parti- 

 cular horse, soon make it ' first favourite,' by rushing 

 to back it at lessening prices, so that in a short time 

 the odds against that particular animal are quoted 

 probably at 5 to 1, instead of 20 to 1 ; others maj^ be 

 priced at 25, S3, or 40 to 1. Betting on the great 

 handicaps of the season begins early and goes on vigor- 

 ously to the day of the race. The following specification 

 of the financial result will shov/ the mode in which the 

 bookmaker squares his account and realizes his profit. 



