A Mirror of the Turf; Or, The Machinery of Horse-Racing Revealed, Showing the Sport of Kings as It Is To-DayBertram, James Glass
History
A Mirror of the Turf; Or, The Machinery of Horse-Racing Revealed, Showing the Sport of Kings as It Is To-Day
Bertram, James Glass
Horse racing -- Great Britain
The Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire, as has been stated, are big betting
races, more money being wagered over these events in the present day
than over any other handicaps of the year. The two find favour in the
eyes of double event bettors; the foreign bookmakers in particular
laid themselves out to accommodate the betting public to any extent.
Two thousand pounds to twenty shillings is the limit fixed for such
bets, and every now and then the feat of combining in one bet the names
of the winning horses of both events is accomplished. In the year
Cardinal York won the one race and Adonis the other the success of
several double event bettors was recorded by the press. One gentleman,
a stockbroker, was named as being the winner of twelve thousand pounds,
the risk he ran in obtaining that sum being nine pounds ten shillings
only. As may be supposed, where one is successful thousands fail. A
bookmaker doing only a small business informed the writer that of
sixteen hundred and seventy-two double event bets which he laid against
the chances of naming the two winners, only thirteen persons were
successful in coupling the first winner with a horse for the second
event, and none of those who tried succeeded in the feat of naming both
winners. An Edinburgh bookmaker who at one time accommodated small
bettors with double event bets on the same races, never once required
to pay, although thousands tried their luck.
Those persons who bet on the results of the race for the
Cambridgeshire, when they are so fortunate as to name the winner,
occasionally obtain wonderfully good odds. Since 1875 only five
favourites have won the race. On the other hand, what are called "long
prices" have been laid against horses that have won in recent years,
as, for instance, 33 to 1, Jongleur (1877); 40 to 1, Jester (1878);
30 to 1, La Merveille (1879); 50 to 1, Bendigo (1883); and 40 to 1,
Gloriation (1887). Several other Cambridgeshire horses might be quoted
at 20 to 1, and at figures a little below 20. Such prices do not often
attend the race for the Cesarewitch, but then the winner in 1890
started at the odds of 28 to 1; and Stoneclink (1885) was quoted while
at the starting-post at 100 to 3--an excellent price, as all who had
the good fortune to back the horse willingly acknowledged.
As has been hinted, the Cesarewitch has been notorious for the thousand
and one plots that have been laid to obtain a victory; the same may be
said of the Cambridgeshire. Many hopes and fears have been centred on
the chance of winning one or both of these races. Clever turfites have
again and again planned and schemed, only, however, to incur defeat.
Honest owners, running on the square with an honestly handicapped
horse, have been "done" in the end by the machinations of some
syndicate possessed of an animal kept for the purpose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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