OWNERS DEFENDED. 313 
supporters are the public, led on by touts and tipsters. Those 
who back and those who advise, continue to sing the praises 
of the animals in hopes that a shorter price will enable them 
to hedge, and so stand to win a good stake but lose nothing : 
whilst the unfortunate owner, wishful to back his own horse 
at a fair price (knowing its real chances) has often to look on 
and ultimately in self-defence to withdraw him from the race 
—as I have before explained. 
It is therefore clear that the owner has no motive for 
dishonesty. But for argument’s sake, we will assume that 
owners, trainers, and jockeys conspire to defraud the public 
of their money by the vilest deception. No one, not even the 
Professor, can believe that the public will be hoodwinked by 
the most ingeniously concocted scheme. At least, the success 
of such a thing has not come within my experience, nor I 
venture to say within the experience of any careful observer 
of the turf and its patrons. 
On paper, nothing looks easier than to lay thousands 
against a horse and thus ruin credulous dupes and make your 
own fortune. But in practice it is very different. For then, 
experience shows that there is considerable difficulty in 
hedging one’s stake, though only for a small sum, and even 
that this cannot always be done. But when anything beyond 
this is attempted, the bookmakers and the public are on the 
alert, and the facts (or what they surmise to be the facts) are 
telegraphed to thousands of people in a few hours, and your 
horse is driven from favouritism to an obscure place in the 
betting ; perhaps reported lame, and certainly predicted to 
be an absentee on the day of the race. 
I think I have said enough to show that it is not possible 
to win enormous sums by laying against horses in our day. 
And I hope I have succeeded in making clear that Professor 
