In such transactions as have been indicated, the _biters_ are sometimes
_bit_. A few years since a clever school of these men agreed to
purchase, for £2,000, a horse which had become a prodigious favourite
for one of the chief handicaps. It was reputed to have won a good
trial, in which it had beaten its stable companions "to blazes," and
was being backed every day at lessening odds. About eight days before
the race it was quoted at 100 to 12, and seemed as if it would be a
dangerous horse. Negotiations for its purchase were entered into by
an agent of the syndicate--and terms being agreed upon, the horse was
quietly transferred to another stable--the dealers having forgotten,
in their anxiety to conclude the business, that the vendor of the
animal had another and, as it proved, a better horse entered for the
same race, quite capable of winning it! As it came out in the sequel,
the gentleman had backed his "lot" to win a considerable sum, whilst
a confederate had taken some "long shots" about the other one, so
that the seller had all the best of the deal, the horse purchased by
the bookmakers proving in the end worthless. In reality the owner was
delighted to sell _number one_, because he had planned to win the race
if he could with _number two_, and that being so, he began business by
backing his "lot."
Instances of another kind of deal might be cited. On one occasion a man
who had been so clever as to back a horse to win him £12,000 before
its owner had backed it for a single sovereign, had the alternatives
placed before him of seeing the animal "scratched," or of buying it, or
of allowing his owner to share his bet. He preferred to purchase, but
before the day of the race the horse had gone off its feed, and when
called upon to make an effort was easily beaten.
Many good and honestly trained horses unexpectedly suffer defeat, a
result which on some occasions is difficult to account for. When such
an event takes place, "would-be wise persons" shake their heads in the
"I told you so" style, and hint at foul play. It frequently happens,
however, that horses which run well at home are unable from some
cause or other to make a successful effort on a racecourse. Horses,
like human beings, it may be taken for granted, are not always "i'
the vein," and so owners and trainers who calculate on success are
often much puzzled by results which they had not the prescience to
anticipate. Many an animal good enough to win a race by twenty lengths
has suffered defeat almost at the outset of the struggle. In such
cases trainers have evil times of it: should the horse run up to the
anticipation founded on the trial, it is spoken of as a great animal;
should it lose, the trainer may be looked upon with suspicion or the
jockey be blamed for losing the race.
"The chicanery of the turf," it has often been said, "is boundless,"
but what is done is being accomplished in a manner so refined, and
at the same time is so quietly done, that the outside public have no
chance of detecting it. Nor does anything accomplished in the way of
"polite fraud" call for the interference of the police; betting is
without the pale of ordinary law, so that all concerned carry on the
game with immunity from consequences. When what is called "a great
handicap _coup_" is achieved, it usually happens that a greater number
of persons will be found to have backed the losers than the winner,
because it does not suit those who are "working the oracle" to allow
the real merits of the horse they have planned to win with to become
known to all and sundry, for the very excellent reason that in such
a case it would come to a short price in the betting, which would be
altogether foreign to the plans of those working the scheme. On the
other hand, it is desirable that as many of the horses in the race
should be heavily backed at a short price as is possible, so that the
bookmakers shall have no scarcity of money with which to pay the sums
they have laid against the winner. As a general rule, in all great
handicap _coups_, it is usual for one or two bookmakers to be in what
is called "the swim," and these are generally selected because of their
prudence; bookmakers do not, as a rule, wear their hearts on their
sleeves.