Page:Once a Week Volume 7.djvu/635

. 29, 1862.] commissioned him, in this instance also, to lay a very heavy stake upon Cockcrow.

In the execution of this commission S had called in the assistance of one of his acquaintances on whom he could depend, and on comparing notes as to the different people who had laid them the money, he found that a considerable portion of it had been laid in a certain quarter, that is, not actually by one certain individual, but by different men, who, as he well knew, from long experience in these matters, acted as agents for him. The more money S brought into the market to support the horse, the less of a favourite he became, and the money still coming in against him from the same quarter, he became alarmed that there might be something the matter with the horse. By sending a telegram, and receiving a reply, his fears on this head were soon set at rest, yet the opposition in the betting market still continued unabated; so, as the day of the race was fast approaching, he telegraphed to the owner, who was then in Scotland, to say he would be in Edinburgh by the mail-train the following morning, and requesting him to meet him without fail on important business. The meeting took place.

“Are you certain,” said S, “that your trainer is on the square?”

“Beyond doubt,” was the reply.

“Are you sure the horse is all right?” asked S.

“I am sure of that,” said the owner, “for the trainer has instructions to telegraph to me immediately if anything goes wrong with him, and I have not heard from him for two or three days.”

S then communicated to him his suspicions, and, after some conversation, the owner finally gave him full authority to use his own discretion as to whether or not he would allow the jockey that was engaged for Cockcrow to ride him, S saying that he should not make up his mind till the morning of the race, and requesting the owner not to show himself at Goodwood till the day after the race.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, be it known that about half an hour before each race, the number of every horse in that race (each having a number affixed to his name on the list of the day) is exhibited on a large board, and opposite to this number is the name of the rider. At length the day arrived; Cockcrow had fallen considerably in the betting. At length the horse arrived when the race was to be run, when, on the numbers of the horses and the names of their riders being exhibited in due course on this board, the rider’s name opposite to Cockcrow’s number was not that of the jockey who it was generally understood would ride him, he having been changed at the last moment by that able tactician S. The scene that now ensued beggared description: the persons who had laid so heavily against the horse were now rushing about like madmen, trying every means to back him, and imploring S to bet them some of their money back again, as they were anxious to “hedge;” to which he coolly replied, after his fashion—“Nay, my lads, I cannot hedge with thee; I want to back him for another thousand, and I made sure you would lay me a little more against him.”

The rush to back the horse by those who had hitherto betted against him, very soon had the effect of making him first favourite, and S, in about half an hour, had the satisfaction of despatching a message to his owner to say he had won in a canter.

Whether the horse would have been equally successful under his originally intended pilot is a problem impossible to solve. It can only be stated, as a curious fact, that his return to public favour commenced from the moment of the announcement of the change of his rider.

Some few years after these events, the great stable with which Phil Spott (alluded to in a former paper) had been connected brought out another Derby winner, in a horse we will call New Zealander. Before this period Phil Spott had seceded from the establishment to which he had been so long allied, and had set up business on his own account, and within a year or two after his secession he had been gathered to his fathers, and others, from time to time, had been seated in the saddle he had so long and so ably filled.

New Zealander having won the Derby, was naturally a great favourite for the Doncaster St. Leger, and the owner and his friends being desirous of laying out on him a considerable sum amongst them, Mr. S was selected as their agent; from the suspicious circumstances which eventually surrounded the horse, a more fortunate choice of a confidant, as it turned out, could not have been made, inasmuch as, having been the general in the case above described, he was not only keenly alive to the danger he and his party had then run, and to the necessity of keeping a strict watch on all the movements in the market, and ascertaining by whom these movements were effected, but prepared for a repetition of this danger, and if it presented itself, to combat it in a masterly manner.

In this case also, as in the case of Cockcrow, S had the assistance of one or two friends in the execution of his commission. Time wore on, and gradually and skilfully large sums were laid out on New Zealander; but as the ground where he was trained was rather public, and telegraphic communication was within easy distance, it may be imagined that the “touts” (horse watchers) were especially on the alert in looking out for the slightest indication, however trifling, that he was not progressing as he ought: but it was so especially notorious to all these gentry that he did his daily work gallantly and well, that their constant telegrams to their various employers were to the effect that, if he went on as well as he had hitherto done, “he could not lose” the race. The effect of these messages, sent to all parts of the kingdom, and to many parts out of it, coupled with the previous public knowledge of the horse’s merits, was naturally an enormous outlay of public money in addition to that which his immediate adherents were investing; and as the four months that intervene between the Derby and the Doncaster St. Leger were fast passing away, S & Co. were rather astonished to find the ready supply of money which still met their demand, and that New Zealander had not improved in price.