BOOKMAKING. 177 



maker will have a profit of greater or lesser amount ; 

 in other words, some of the horses may be only 

 backed to win a few hundreds, instead of the whole 

 thousand, while one or two may not be backed at all, 

 in which case he ' skins the lamb.' 



These figures, however, must be taken cum grano 

 sails ; they are merely given by way of illustration, and 

 nothing varies so much as the finance of a handicap. 

 In not a few instances the bookmaker finds it diflicult 

 to make ends meet; he is unable, that is, to bet round 

 or lay against every horse, and there may be no 

 scratchings to speak of. When a few of the leading 

 horses — taking it for granted they have been well 

 backed — are struck out of the race at an early date 

 (' scratched '), it is just so much money found. Some- 

 times the public partiality for particular horses is so 

 pronounced that they will not back more than ten 

 or twelve out of the forty or fifty which may have 

 accepted for the race. In such a case, if the book- 

 maker has the run of a good market, he tries various 

 plans to get laid against the horses which are not 

 generally fancied ; he wrll offer them in lots, or in a 

 lump ; at all events, he will do his utmost to get money 

 out of them. In making a book for a handicap of 

 importance, on which betting (all in)* begins months 

 before the day fixed for the race, such as the Lincoln- 

 shire Handicap, Cit}^ and Suburban, or Cesarewitch and 

 Cambridgeshire, bookmakers have numerous advan- 

 tages. Not to speak of those horses which are never 

 entered, or those which may not accept, they have the 



* 'AH ill' means that the backer takes the chance of the 

 bofse being entered. 



12 



