2!0 THE BLUE RIBBON OF THE TURF. 



collect and quote the prices can be got at and bo 

 ' squared.' There are many people who assert that 

 every man on the turf has his price, and that by 

 giving a reporter ten pounds, the quoted odds can bo 

 shown on paper to be less than tlicy were in the pad- 

 dock. Even if the Jockey Club were to appoint an 

 official reporter, he, too, according to the opinion of 

 those knowinc^ most about such afiairs, miirht be tarn- 

 pered with. 



AVhy should there be any 'limit' in the matter of 

 starting price ? Bettors in the ring obtain the real 

 price, whether it may be 2 to 1 or 20 to 1 ; why, 

 then, should those who bet in towns not obtain their 

 proper winnings \ Wei-e backers of horses not the 

 fools they so often show themselves to be, they would 

 cease to do business on any other terms. The real 

 starting price is little enough for the risk run by 

 persons betting in the dark, but vfhen the odds of 

 20 to 1 are cut down to 8 or 10, it is really scanda- 

 lous. 



Before concluding this part, it may be well to take 

 a glance at the starting-price bookmaker at home. 

 His home for the day maybe at his club, where he has 

 a table at which to do business, or he may be the pro- 

 prietor of a billiard- room, or the tenant of a good- 

 going pub, or little shop for the sale of cigars or 

 newspapers ; no matter what his mode of blinding the 

 authorities may be, his real work is that of book- 

 making, doing business chiefly on the daily races, and 

 with the majority of his customers for ready money, 

 from, perhaps. Is., up to £5, or even £10. 

 There are various ways of carrying on such a busi- 



