“During the time of a meeting certain men who have entered as runners can be seen leaving the tent just as the runners are turning out and go to the bookmakers, giving the tip as to who is to try and who is not. Finally, my opinion—and, as I have already said, I have had twenty-three years’ experience—is that the whole system is rotten. The same system obtains in connection with cycle racing, only more so. I would add, however, that if you clear the ground of betting men and bookmakers then you will have more honest sport; as it is at present it is absolutely dishonest. I have been afraid after a race to meet some of these people, and usually got out of the way as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, on one occasion when going for my prizes some fellow—no doubt a bookie—struck me from the crowd a violent blow on the eye, making it black, simply because I had refused to be bought. I have been offered sums of money times and times beyond number to sell myself to them, but I always declined. Perhaps if I had lent myself to that practice I would have had more money now than I have.” VI TIPSTERS AND TIPSTERS’ ADVERTISEMENTS LORD DURHAM, speaking at the Gimcrack Club Dinner in York on Friday December 9, 1904, drew attention to the evil of the tipster in terms which caused quite a commotion in the sporting press of the country. He said that “representations were made to clerks of courses that they should saddle themselves with impracticable duties, and race-course managers were instructed how to conduct their meetings by people who had not the slightest knowledge of race-courses, and paid no consideration to the material factors that in many cases hampered their action. He knew that some people paid very little attention to what sporting writers said, but there were thousands of people who were unable to judge independently, and if they believed what they read would gain a false impression of the Turf, and of the habits and characters of its supporters. His object in mentioning this matter was twofold. One was to warn the racing public not to pay too much attention to those writers, and the other was to suggest to such sporting newspapers that professed to uphold the morality of the Turf—and he mentioned the _Sportsman_, the _Sporting Life_, and the _Sporting Chronicle_, which he challenged to prove their good intentions—a very desirable reform, and that was simply to refuse to publish what was known as tipsters’ advertisements, those scoundrels who exercised a most pernicious influence upon the Turf. The representatives of the _Sportsman_, the _Sporting Life_, and the _Sporting Chronicle_ were examined upon this very question before the House of Lords’ Committee, and every member of that Committee knew very well that the members of the Jockey Club and the owners and trainers all expressed their utmost detestation of these tipsters. They knew that there was not a trainer in England who could not tell them what