2o6 THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



IV. 



A way of betting at the present time much favoured 

 by persons who do not find it convenient to attend 

 race meetings is known as 'starting price.' The person 

 speculating in that way of doing business instructs a 

 bookmaker to put £1 on Bnsybee, on his behalf, for 

 the Honey wood Handicap at ' starting price,' which, 

 it need scarcely be explained, is tlie price at which 

 the horse starts for the race ; it may be 2 to 1 or 

 10 to 1, the backer being paid accordingly. A vast 

 amount of money is day by day staked in this fashion, 

 both in clubs and with outside bookmakers who affect 

 this mode of doing business. A limit is fixed, beyond 

 which pa.yments will not be made; it is usually fixed 

 at 8 or 10 to 1 on the smaller races, and ranges from 

 16 to 33 to 1 on the larger handicaps. Thousands of 

 persons may daily be seen backing horses at ' starting 

 price '; that they do not make much money at the 

 game can be seen by looking at them. No wonder, 

 seeing the small rate of odds at which the horses they 

 usually back start at, and seeing that when the odds are 

 large backers do not get the full tale of their invest- 

 ments because of the limitation referred to. As a 

 rule, the horses invested on start (as has been shown) 

 at exceedingly short prices; often enough it is a case 

 of odds on them ; at other times even money or 6 to 4 

 against the horse backed. When, therefore, a starting- 

 price backer, as is often the case, backs six or more 

 horses in a day, and when, as frequently happens, he 

 backs tvv'o anim.als running in the same race, he is 

 certain in the course of time, if not at once, to lose 



