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his is not essential to the system regarded in its scientific aspect; but in practice, as will presently appear, it makes it easier to apply it.
Next, he lays against nearly every horse in a race as early as possible, when the odds are longest. If he lays against a few which are certain not to run, so much the better for him; that is so much clear gain to start with. He should proportion his wagers so that the sum of what he lays against a horse, and what he is backed for, may amount to about the same for each horse. The precise system requires that it should be exactly the same, but the bookmaker often improves upon that by taking advantage, in special cases, of his own knowledge of a horse's chance and his opponent's inexperience. In every case he lays odds a point or two short of the legitimate odds against a horse. Suppose for a moment that the odds are ten to one against the horse, then it is always easy to find folk who rather fancy the horse, and think the odds are not eight to one, or even six to one, against him; he selects such persons for his wagers about that horse. He conveys carefully the idea that he thinks the horse's chance underrated at eight, or even nine to one; but, as a favor, he will make the odds nine to one. Of course, he has no occasion to search about for those who favor any given horse. Every greenhorn has a fancy for some horse, and is willing to take something short of the current odds for the privilege of backing him. The bookmaker can therefore fill in his book pro re nata,
until at least he has made up sufficient amounts for most of the horses engaged, when, of course, he gives more special attention to those whose leaf in his book is as yet incomplete. Now, let us take an illustrative case to see how this system works: Suppose there are nine horses in the race, to wit :--A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and K. Let the odds be---
3 to 1 against A [ 11 to 1 against F
5 to 1 ,, B ] 11 to 1 ,, G
7 to 1 ,, C 19 to 1 ,, H
9 to 1 ,, D 23 to 1 . K
9 to 1 ,, E [
(It should be noted that when these odds are re-diced to chances, becoming respectively 1/4, 1/6,1/8, 1/10, 1/12, 1/12, 1/20, 1/24, their sum should be unity or very near it. It does not matter at all-except to backers--if the sum is greater than unity, as it generally is; but if it should be less than unity, the exact application of the system would involve loss to the bookmaker and gain to backers, which is not the bookmaker s object.) Suppose now the wagers on each horse amount to 1,000/. (or for convenience, and to avoid fractions, say 1,200/.), if the race is important, and bets much in request; though the system, in its beautiful adapt- ability, may be applied to shillings quite as well as to
Apart from the extra points which the bookmaker allows himself, he may lay, in all, about--
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