ADVANTAGES OF BACKING NOMINATIONS, 263 
throughout, no secret need be kept as to the merits of the 
greyhounds. You may have the best in the world, and 
all the world may know it, and also that he is well: but it 
availeth the public nothing ; they can’t back him. They may 
back the owner’s nomination, and he, from prudential 
motives, may run his dog in another nomination and a worse 
animal in his own. And if in racing, in the same way 
the betting should be on the nomination instead of on the 
horse, then and there would be an end to the career of' 
the tipster and the tout, and the horses at Newmarket, 
Epsom, and elsewhere, might gallop, walk, or be kept 
in the stable without reports of trials that never took place, 
or of horses doing wonderfully well that are perhaps dead, 
or if not de facto defunct, are so to all intents and purposes 
so far as their chances of winning are concerned. 
As for owners, they would scarcely be able to realise 
at first the immense advantages accruing to them from 
the change. They would be able to see their horses with- 
out any one knowing that they even took an interest in 
such an animal as a thoroughbred. And there would be 
one other great change. Stable-boys would no longer have 
inducements to betray their employer’s secrets, or in other 
ways be tempted from their allegiance ; for no information 
would be needed, and promises would no longer be made 
before the race of rich rewards afterwards, that were never 
meant to be or never are kept. 
But I should observe that of recent years betting has 
undergone a complete revolution. At present, the bookmakers 
may in a restricted sense be styled backers ; for few now- 
adays make a genuine book, but rather keep some particular 
horses to represent their interest as well as “the field.” The 
limited state of the money-market, and the precedence 
