BOOKMAKERS AS AMATEURS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 June 1930, Page 10

BOOKMAKERS AS AMATEURS

EARLY DERBY DAYS.

It is just a century and a half since the first race for the greatest Turf event in the world, the English Derby, was run on Epsom Downs. This race was named in honour of Edward Smith Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, founder of the Oaks, a race for three-yelir-old fillies, which antedated the Derby by several years, as did the St. Leger. There, were 3G subscribers tor the first Derby, run on May -1, 1780, but only nine horses, all colts, went to the post. Sir Charles Bunbury’s chestnut, Diomed by Florizel, wen from Major O'Kelly’s Boudrow, with Mr Walker’s Spitfire third. The second and third were by O’Kelly’s celebrated stallion Eclipse, who was never beaten on a racecourse, and at. the stud founded a line of winners that extends to the present day. It is an oft-told story how O’Kelly, wagering that he could place the horses in a certain race, declared for “Eclipse first, the rest nowhere.” In those days if one horse finished so far ahead that the other had not reached the distance post—which was situated 240 yards from the winning post—the judge placed only the winner, and declared the others “distanced,” Eclipse duly landed O’Kelly’s daring wager. He must have been a wonderful racehorse, yet Joseph Osborne in the “Horsebreeders’ Handbook,” declares that Pot-S-os. a son of Eclipse, bred by Lord Abingdon in 1773, "was unquestionably the 'best horse of the 18th century.” Pot-8-os, then seven years old, was still winning good races, in Lord Grosvenor’s colours, in the year the first Derby was run. He won 35 of the 46 races in which he competed, and his name is to be found in the pedigrees of many celebrated horses of modern times.

Pot-8-os received his peculiar name in an unusual way. Visiting . the stable one day the owner jokingly challenged the Jioy in charge to spell the horse’s name. At that period very few stable-boys were able to read or write. Taking a piece of chalk the boy laboriously scrawled on a corn bin, Pot 8 os, or, as another version says, Potoooooooo. This so amused the owner that he rewarded the boy, and adopted this queer way of spelling the word. Horseracing in the first year of the Derby was only one of the sports of Epsom Downs and Newmarket. There was cock-fighting, and gambling with dice and cards as well. The programme on that historical May day of 1730 included “cockfights between the gentlemen of Middlesex and the gentlemen of Wiltshire.” Professional bookmakers were (hen, and for many years afterwards, unknown. Gentlemen made books among themselves. In fact, no public interest had yet attached itself to a, race destined ultimately to become world famous. From the fact that Diomed, the first winner, started a G to 4 favourite, it is obvious that his success was expected, for he had previously won a race for a sweepstake of 500 guineas each, six subscribers, at Newmarket. The Derby stake amounted to 1015 guineas, and other successes that season increased Diomed’s winnings to 51G5 guineas. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. History has a way of repeating it-self—-not always a pleasant way. When Diomed won the Derby a century and a-half ago, England was almost overwhelmed by an ocean of troubles, which, curiously enough, have, in many respects, their counterparts to-day. Between 1780 and 1783 England was fighting desperately for her very existence as a maritime and Imperial power. She was faring badly in the American War of Independence; Spain and France came in against her, and, in that memorable Derby year, Holland also was added to her formidable list of adversaries. In India, Hyder Ali, the famous Sultan of Mysore, swept into the Carmatic, but was heavily defeated at Porto Novo in July, 1781. This was not the whole of the woeful story. The nation was further embarrassed by the Gordon riots and other internal troubles. England triumphed in the end—“muddled through,” perhaps—just as she had done before, and. doubtless, will do again.

Yet, despite the parlous state of affairs it was one of the most brilliant and fascinating periods of British history. Many great personages, statesmen, soldiers, sailors, litterateurs, poets, actors, and artists flourished in never-dying, glory. It mustbe confessed, however, that the morals of the period were decidedly lax. 'Lecky says: “No English statesman conducted the affairs of the nation, at home and abroad, for a considerable period, more skilfully or more prosperously than Robert Walpole . . . but he undoubtedly lowered the moral tone of public life.” And that great statesman Charles James Fox, “a blazing comet of the Senate, and a leading member of the Jockey Club,” was one of the most reckless gamblers and bon viveurs of a hard-lighting, heavy-drinking, high-playing, looseliving age. Fox and his racing confederate, Lord Foley, ran some good horses and landed several coups, notably 12,000 guineas over one race, won by Pyrrhus, and 16,000 guineas over another event, but Fox was nearly always heavily in debt. He oitce played for 20 hours, and lost on an average £-100 an hour. His father, Lord Holland, came again and. again to the rescue, and paid his debts to the extent of £170,000 it. is said —no mean sum in those days. When Lord Foley began racing he was possessed of an income of £lB,OOO a year, also a 'sum in ready money of £lOO,OOO, all of which was lost on the Turf, and at the card tables. The gambling mania, in the latter part of the 18th century was really extraordinary. The Marquis of Qucensberry (“old Q.”) appears to have been one of the very few to win money on the turf and the green tables, or. at least, not to have lost much. Most of the gay young bucks lost heavily and several were utterly ruined. Lord Stavordale dropped £300.000 in one night at cards, and al! sorts of queer wagers were laid. They would bet on anything in those days, even the duration of the lives of their friends and relatives.