196 THE BLUE RIBBON OE THE TURF. 



bargain. He is pretty sure (it is his business) to 

 hnoiv more than the backers ; he may, for instance, 

 know that the horse backed is not ultimately intended 

 to run in that particular race. Tlie bookmaker, it 

 may be afhrmed, plays the game with loaded dice. 

 ' I had one year,' said a bookmaker to a friend, ' nine 

 horses to lay agaiiid for the Cambridgeshire after the 

 accej)tances were declared, and as two of these became 

 pretty hot favourites, I made a good bit of money out 

 of them.' Sixty-six to one is a niggardly price to lay 

 when all the contingencies that may prevent a horse 

 winning are taken into account. The fortunate per- 

 sons who by a stroke of good luck find, after the race 

 has been decided, that they have selected the winning 

 horse at the long odds may rest assured they have not 

 received value for their m.oney, gratifying for the time 

 as may be the result. Of the 120 horses entered for 

 the race, only seventy may have accepted, and out of 

 the fifty non-acceptors probably fifteen will have been 

 pretty well backed, in addition to which several horses 

 will have been pretty heavily supported than did not 

 enter. Then, again, before the day of the race half 

 a dozen of the horses after becoming pretty good 

 favourites will be ' scratched ' ; that is, struck out of 

 the contest, all of which occurrences, while they favour 

 the bookmaker, are the reverse of favourable to the 

 backers, but are important factors in regulating the 

 state of the odds. 



The Cambridgeshire is a much more important race 

 than the Cesare witch, as far as betting is concerned, 

 and, as has been stated, the initial odds against naming 

 the wmner are ucually fixed at Q6 to 1, and well may 



