20+ THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



bettor was still inclined to go on, his £21 would pro- 

 duce the sum of £1,050. 



A bookmaker who in one year laid as many as 

 seven hundred double event bets on the Lincolnshire 

 Handicap and Liverpool Grand National Steeplechase, 

 found, after the first race had been decided, that only 

 nineteen of his clients had succeeded in naminof the 

 winner of the first event ; moreover, the said nineteen 

 selected seven difT^irent horses for the steeplechase ; 

 and the bookmaker, having in his possession all the 

 money invested on losers, was able himself to back 

 the seven different horses in the steeplechase for all 

 the money he had engaged for, and have a handsome 

 profit left over. The prices of the seven horses which 

 he required to make safe when the first event had 

 been determined were respectively 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14 

 and 20 to 1, and as it happened that he only stood 

 to Jose £200 on the horse which was at 5 to 1, he 

 covered that particular risk for £4<0 ; his heaviest 

 risk was on the horse at 1-i to 1, which, when most of 

 the doubles were taken, was twice that rate of odds : he 

 took 100 to 7 ten times in the market, that is, at his 

 club, so that for a sum of £70 he was able to cover 

 what he stood to lose in the event of that particular 

 liorse winning. In the end, only one of the seven horses 

 proved successful, but the prudent bookmaker could 

 not foresee which of them it would be, and therefoie 

 he very properly took care to make himself safe ; but, 

 as the sequel showed, the sum of £40 would have 

 been ample to secure himself against any loss that 

 might have occurred to him from double events. 



Many similar experiences might be related. It has 



