FAMOUS BETTORS.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 86, 24 January 1885, Page 5

FAMOUS BETTORS.

When the history of betting comes to b« written by some competent hand it wil appear that from the very earliest time* nearly all the prominent members of the ring — that variegated region— have sprung from very humble origin, and started with very little capital. As nearly all those who may, in a comparative sense, be termed the saving members of the fraternity die wealthy, and as the rest live in \rhat they consider to be a luxurious fashion, it will appear that bookuiaking is a lucrative calling, and backing the reserve Take old Michael Brunton, a true Yorkshireman tor instance, born in 1755, and who, we are told, lived respected by all, and died rich at tho age of 90, after having attended Doncaater races for sixty-one years without intermission, and having carried on his trade till within three years of his death. In the matter of bookmakers aspiring to municipal honours history repeats itself, for Michael wad more than once Mayor of Richmond, where he lived all his life-. The interpretation of Acts of Parliament is said to have been the only thing that caused him any uneasiness, though in that difficulty his self-reliance never deserted him, and when his, brother magistrates disagreed with his reading — and they appear to have done so pretty of ton— it was hs habit to produce a handful of coins, and offer to lay the bench 6 to 4 all round that he was right. Quite as great a character was old William Richards, the Leicester stocking seller, who, like Brunton, invariably dressed ie a blue coat with brass buttons, drab breeches and gaiters. Richards used to hawk stockings in early Hfo, and, while on his rounds, won some money at cords. A local race meeting gave him the chance of backing a successful out-sider v ith his winnings, and from this small beginning he became the proprietor of Ragdale Hall. Whenever he M'ent to a race meeting he used to take a supply of stockings with him to sell to the people Qf the inns at which he stopped, and whenever he won over a meeting no always brought back brown Windsor soap and ribbons for his servants. As an example of his careful mode of living, it is said that he always refused to keep a servant until he was worth £500 a year, lie always read his Bible for an hour on Sunday, being as methodical in his studies a? old William Scott — no relation to the racing family— who made it a practice to read "Bailee's, Dictionary" and the Prayer book twice avery year. <• Betting on horso racing is, no doubt, as )ld as horse-racing itself. At any rate, in 'he time of Charles 11. racing seems to lave so far grown from a pleasure to a business as to call for legislative interference. In those days, however, it must have been well-nigh impossible to have obtained a correct return of the betting, as aach bookmaker was a law unto himself. A. certain Mr Ogden, who had the reputation of having such a marvellous head, for figures as to enable him to amass a fortune Dt £100,000, was one of the first to see the weak points in the old style, and to reduce bookmaking to a science This was xbout 17S0, or perhaps a little earlier. Ogden was another example of a bookmaker ruing from nothing, for in the "Morning Post" of July 5, 1797, the following question, subsequently answered in the ailimative, appeared : " Is Mr Ogden now called the Newmarket Oracle) the same person \vho, twenty five years ago, was nn annual pedestrian to Ascot, covered kv i th dust, amusing himself with pricking in the belt, hustling in the hat, etc., among the lowest class of rustics at the inferior jooths of the fair?" In IS2I Frank Richardson allowed his fancy to outrun lis discretion, and plunged heavily on ITortuna for the Leger of that year, when she ran second, he was unable to meet his mgagements. To his credit, however, be t reported, that, instead ot joining the irmy of welchers, he adopted the businessike course of asking for time, and issuing promissory notes to his creditors. These orbearing creatures must have jumped for oy on hearing that Richardson had, at the lucceeding Newmarket meeting, been ucky enough to back Michaelmas at the •emunerative price of 20 to I for the Grand Duke Michael Stakes. It is not stated in vhat proportion his own uprightness and ihe pressure of his friends contributed to ;he result ; but the fact remains that the irst use he made of his winnings was to edeem his paper. In 1 824 Richardson had i great turn of luck by backing Jerry for ihe Lcger of that year, and refusing to ay against him. With the fortune— of ,vhich the money so won was the foundation — he bought land, and built a great louse near York, called by the owner 3t. Nicholas's Place, but dubbed by the leighbours Jerry Hall. Before many years iaa passed he was again in difficulties, and lied in 1833 at the Golden Lion, Newmarket, in straitened circumstances. Newmarket Heath has ever been a favourite resort with Cambridge undergraduates of the , period, and in Bob Mutton's day they intrusted him with all their business, and this juvenile connection gained for him the soubriquet of "The Baby Jumper." Bob, they say, had a hack, appropriately enough a son of Ratcatcher, who knew a backer as well as his master, and would stop dead when one approached. Just when Mutton was at the height of his success he, unlike the jockey in the story, "hedged," and, giving up tho trade- of bookmaker, became a dissenting minister* This by no means exhausts the li,st of men who have in some May or other been remarkable, and who owed their success to bookmakirtg. There was 1 John Gully, for instance, ' who was in turn butcher's boy, prizo 'fighter, public house landlord, outside hotting man, member of Tattersalls, and M.P. for Pontefract. He was taken out of prison ( where he was confined for debt) by Col. Mellish, to fight Pearce, " the Game Chicken." Ho was beaten, fought Gregson tuico, and then retired from the prize ring to settle at Newmarket, where he used to keep a " hell," and where it is said ho began a system of corruption that " placed tho secrets of all Newmarket at his disposal," a statement that may be a little wide of the mark, though trainers were not then the men they now are. There have doubtless been several Davises in the ring, but the only two whose lives have been recorded were very different men. Davis, the ex-tailor, began by attending a gaming house in Pickering Place, after which he took one of his own in St James's street, and finally became a prominent bookmaker. He it was who called out at the Newmarket Subscription Room, "Here, Bentinck, I'll accommodate you " - a piece of impertinence for which he was well snubbed ; while on another occasion he anticipated the man who, on booking a small bet to the Marquis of Hastings, when his plunging days were over, emphasised tho entry with the remark "Mind, I expect this to be paid," by saying to a backer, ' ' I wonder if I shall ever see your money if you lose." The other, Davia was the well-known "Leviathan" who first had his attention called to the profits of bookmaking while emplo.yedas a journeyman carpenter at the Newmarket Subscription Rooms. On his return to tew i, he acted as bookmaker to his fellow workmen at Cubitt'e, and then, after betting, in the streets, became a member of TattfnaUa,

and the proprietor of lists innumerable, that were looked after by clerks in various public houses. He did not come into prominence till 1848, when he laid Lord Strafford — to whom the commission to back The Cur for the Cesarewitch had been entrusted — £12,000 to £1,000 in a single bet, If Davis was one of the best men to win from, he was one of the worst to lose to, as he would never ' bet again with any one who had to "ask for time." Besides the loss of £12,000 over The Cur, Hotspur's not winning the Derby is said to have made a difference to him of about £50,000, and Barbarian's failure of nearly twice that sum, Voltigeur's Derby in reported to have cost him £40,000. while in Teddington's year he paid Mr Greville £15,000 in one check ; but, in spite of losses, his winnings are supposed to have been large enough to have allowed him to begin the season of 1852 with £130,000 to his credit at the London and Westminster Bank. It will be remembered that Davis left his money to the Mayor and Corporation of Brighton They, after coming to terms with the relations, who disputed the will, lately expended a large sum of what " the Leviathan " left in the laying out of Preston Park.— "London Field."