The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-06-26
SENSATIONAL DERBY BETS.
In Old Days Plungers Put Up For.
tunes on Single Race.


"Bookies are afraid to lay good
odds, nowadays" an old racegoer re-
marked at Newmarket recently, says
Tid-Bits. bets are mere trifies COM
pared with those of the old days.
And certainly We do not hear Of
''plunges' such as those, for instance,
which characterized the transactions
of Mr.. Davies, the first bookmaker to
be called a "leviathan" who betted
in tens of thousands.
In the year 1856 he laid Mr. Clarke
s50O,OOO to $1,000 against each of
three horses the latter had in the
derby of that year, Mr.. Clarke hav-
ing to pay, while, if Barbarian had
won the Derby of 1858 instead of
Daniel O'Rourke the ''leviathan"
would have netted something like
100000.
One of Davies first big wagers
was to lay Lord Strafford 100000 to
$4,000 against The Cur for the
Cesarewitch. Davies started life as
carpenter, and began betting in a
small street off Gray's Inn road by
taking half crowns. But by great
shrewdness and insight he soon gain
ed the confidence of the public, and
the amounts he paid away daily to
ready-money clients we're enormous.
He is said never to have quibbled or
suggested mistakes, and such was
his honesty that on one occasion,
when he found that a successful eli
ent had died since making the bet,
he paid the winnings over to the
widow.
Another famous book maker who
made big bets, and in whom the rae
ing fraternity had the same high con-
fidence born of actual experience, was
the late Mr.. Fry In the course of
his long and successful career he
paid out as much as 100000 on
single wager, and in more than one
instance a sum of $4,000. And while
he lost upward of 100000 through
defaulters nobody ever lost penny
owing to his failure to pay up.
1t has been suggested that there
have never been such big betting
transactions during the last twenty
years. In 1902, however, when Ard
Patrick won the Derby, the Grately
Stable had a tremendous gamble on
Pekin, and would have taken more
than 100000 out of the ring if he
had won. Only a few Epsoms ago an
amateur speculator had 100000 on
one of his horses in a selling plate,
and lost the money, while more re-
Gently still 100000 to $4,000 was
laid to the stable against the horse
that won the Cesarewitch.
Reference might also be made to
Mr.. Henry Chaplin, who was said to
have made a quarter of a million
when his horse Hermit won the Der
by, but probably half that amount
would be nearer the mark. At the
odds of 66 to 1 Mr. Chaplin would
have had to invest less than $4,000
to do it.
Quite naturally, it is in backing a
favorite that the largest bets are
made. The odds are, of course, small,
and it takes money to make money. 1t
may be accepted as an axiom that in
a frst-class race half the betting is
on the favorite.
Thus, when the favorite fails to
win, the public are badly hit, and
the bookmakers net thousands and
thousands of dollars. Probably never
did hackers suffer more severely than
when Sir Hugo won the Derby in the
1892 race, at the odds of 49 to /.
There was probably only one man
who backed that horse to the extent
of $3.50, and he received $4,000
for his bold venture.
But on La Fleche, the favorlte at
very small odds, gold was poured in
a ceaseless stream-in fact, until the
bookmakers refused to take a sove-
reign more.