252 BETTING AS IT IS. 
It is my last wish to make sweeping assertions without 
advancing facts in their support. I will therefore give a 
few instances to show the modus operandi of those who 
thus modestly feather their nests. 
In 1855, when the Metropolitan was a race on which there 
was much betting, long odds being as a rule freely obtain- 
able, I asked a very noted commissioner of the day to back 
Pharsalus for the race for £500 in my behalf immediately 
after the weights came out, the horse figuring in the 
betting at all sorts of prices from 50 to 1 to 7 to 1. He 
returned me 8 to 1—44,000 to £500. Now without his 
aid, I could have obtained this £4,000 to £100, or at the 
utmost £150, showing a clear loss of 4350, simply through 
putting the commission in his hands. In this case there 
was no hedging for any one but the takers of long odds, in 
which category the owner and his friends did not figure; 
although it is perhaps needless to say the trusty commis- 
sioner did, having them in fact pretty well to himself. It is 
in this fashion that owners are made “to stand to be shot at.” 
The faithful commissioner has all the long odds, and lays 
his patron the short ones; and thus, as he proceeds, hedges 
all his own money, and on all occasions stands, without a 
chance of loss, to win a large stake on the success of the 
horse he has backed for the owner and himself. 
In another instance in 1859, some time before the Two 
Thousand, I asked my commissioner to back Promised Land 
for me. But he declared this could not be done. ‘No one 
will lay,” he averred, “except at a very short and unfair 
price.” “Very well,” I replied, “I shall not run him.” It is 
almost absurd to add that this had the desired effect. ‘How 
much do you want to back him for, and what price will you 
take?” came the rejoinder in the shape of a question. I 
