246 BETTING AS IT IS. 
repute with whom the amateur may bet and be sure of 
receiving his money if he be fortunate enough to back 
the winner. But with the men who take the money before 
the race, and with others outside the recognised ring, he 
should have no dealings under any pretence. These men 
only receive the money with the intention of decamping 
with it, should they lose. 
Another great point is never to rely for information on 
a tipster or a tout. These gentry know more of men than 
horses, and are always in search of flats and generally find 
them. They never make the fortune for themselves that they 
are always professing to have made and to be still making for 
others. As Butler has it in Hudibras, they, 
- Make fools believe in their far-seeing, 
Of things before they are in being ;’ 
To swallow gudgeon ere they’re catch’d, 
And count their chickens ere they’re hatch’d.” 
Rather rely on your own knowledge and judge from what 
you see than from what others may say, unless you take the 
advice of a friend that may happen to know or be the owner 
of any horse about to run. By this means you may win, 
though you will have to take a shorter price than the owner, 
after the commission is executed; but you have the satis- 
faction of knowing that you have backed a horse that may 
have a fair chance of winning and will be content whatever 
be the result in the assurance that you have been honestly 
dealt by and have had in turf phraseology “a run for your 
money.” Says Lord Byron— 
“Most men, till by losing rendered sager, 
Will back their own opinion by a wager,” 
This is so, it may be concluded ; for it is the dictum of a 
great student of mankind, and will probably be found true 
