WHO SETS THE MARKET? 195 



after season in time to come they will doubtless return 

 to their vomit. 



The Cesarewitch, as has been indicated, is a long- 

 distance race, the course over which it is run being 

 two miles and a quarter in length, and the reason 

 given by the bookmakers for fixing the initial rate of 

 odds against the field at 50 to 1 only is that so very 

 few horses can successfully travel the distance, that 

 those which can do so are sure to be ' spotted ' by the 

 backers, and be heavily invested upon. It is not odds 

 of 10 to 1, they say, against certain of the horses if 

 they should be entered and not be overweighted. 

 There is a grain of truth in the protest, but a grain 

 only, for the race has been oftener than once secured 

 by a horse carrying a weight which it was thought 

 would prevent its gaining a victory. It has likewise 

 been won by horses never thought of before the entries, 

 as Primrose Day, and the merits of which were perhaps 

 only discovered ten days before the race, so that on 

 the whole the bettors who take the odds have usually 

 the worst, and the bookmakers who lay the odds tlio 

 best of the bargain, no matter how liberal the price 

 ma}^ be that is offei'ed. It has to be taken into account 

 also that the race is often enough won by a horse 

 which has been kept and 'worked' for the race — a 

 horse that only the trainer and owner will know the 

 merits of, the public, when possible, being kept in the 

 dark, so that those immediately connected Avith the 

 stable may obtain an enhanced price. This is a phate 

 of turf chicanery often practised. 



As a rule, the la3-er of the odds against the chances 

 of individual horses has a long way the best of the 



