WHO SETS THE MARKET? 



I. 



As to the amount of betting which now takes place 

 on the great popular race of the season, who can put 

 it down in ' exact figures '? Certainly not the present 

 writer. It is being said that betting on the Derby is 

 not what it used to be, and, perhaps, in some respects 

 it is not ; but the amount of money which changes 

 hands is certainly not less than it was forty or fifty 

 years since. Individual bets may not be so large, 

 but that is made up for by the multiplicity of small 

 sums ventured on the race. Thousands of persons 

 are betting a little in these days for the hundreds 

 who gambled on the result of the Derby half a 

 century ago ; and for each hundred who made ' books ' 

 on the race in the year 1835, there are now, in all 

 probability, a thousand at the same busijiess. It 

 would not, probably, be an exaggeration to say that 

 for the next race lour or five of the competing horses 

 will be bucked, or have been backed, to win, by their 

 owners, their friends, and the gt neral public, at least 

 a quarter of a million sterling, whilst one or two 

 animals which have been struck out — 'scratched ' is the 

 phrase — and the remainder of the animals that will 



