iQo THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



dividend. As a rule, which, however, hke other rides, 

 is not without its exceptions, the ' form,' or winning 

 abiUty, of all horses which have run in races is known, 

 so that their chances of winning can be pretty well 

 estimated. When, therefore, seven horses are brought 

 together to compete in one or other of the commoner 

 or smaller handicaps of the time, bettors make it their 

 business to ' weigh up ' the merits, or demerits, as the 

 case may be, of each of the competitors, the perform- 

 ances of the different horses being hefore them in the 

 printed guides to the turf, with the view of backing 

 whichever horse has, in their opinion, the best chance 

 of winning the race. Well, what ought the odds to be 

 against any given horse, and how should the odds be 

 determined ? 



It used to be said of a certain bookmaker, clever at 

 figures and quick at setting the market, that he em- 

 ployed a Cambridge man to fix the prices for him, and 

 that it was done according to the doctrine of pro 

 babilities. That, of course, was somewhat of a joke ; 

 but one would almost think, so quickly are prices 

 fixed and so glibly run off the tongue, that the merits 

 of each horse, or rather its chance of winning a given 

 race, had been appraised on mathematical principles. 

 No such thing in reality happens, and the prices 

 quoted, it may be safely asserted, are in every sense 

 * fancy prices ' offered on the spur of the moment. 

 In a race for which seven or eight horses are brought 

 to the post, prices may range from perhaps 7 to 4 to 

 20 to 1. If the race is a handicap, the weights appor- 

 tioned to the different competitors are supposed, in 

 t'leory, at least, to render the chance of every animal 



