[Gutenberg 62606] • A Mirror of the Turf · Or, The Machinery of Horse-Racing Revealed, Showing the Sport of Kings as It Is To-Day

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1892 edition. Excerpt: ...the daily increasing army of vaticinators; and yet, as must be patent to those who devote time and attention to the study of such matters, no betting man could possibly make a fortune, or even earn a living, by abjectly following either or all of the honest newspaper tipsters referred to. It is amusing to note how some of the more "screeching" of the newspapers comport themselves. When one of them, for instance, after a period of six or seven weeks, becomes some day so fortunate as to select three or four horses that win as many races, it shouts out next day in loud tones so that all may have news of its prescience--a supremely Irish mode of telling readers that to follow its tips would be ruinous. One day's luck out of twenty or thirty simply means to backers " fell despair," and much of it. There is (or was lately) a tipster who is never done sounding his own praises; "as I predicted, Chance did the trick easily," "my selection Accident won in a walk," "I gave two for such and such a race, and my first selection Happy-go-lucky literally romped in." But what of that, when backers of the two lost their money, the romping in horse starting at odds of 3 to 1 on him! Let us suppose that some sanguine speculator had risked a fivepound note on each selection (because when two horses are selected it is necessary to back both in case of missing the winner), the result would have been a loss of 5 on No. 2 and a gain f Jc1 13 on No. 1, showing a balance to the bad of $ ys. But, notwithstanding, the tipster in question crowed over this feat of tipping, just as a bantam cock does when he is surveying the half-dozen inmates of his harem. These details will not probably be pleasant to the...