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VIEWS OF A BETTING PHILOSOPHER. An Intelligent and Strictly Adherrcd System the Only Avenue to Assured Success. Pittsburgh. To... January 31. — Some people make a respectable yearly competence out of backing horses. I dont, mean the so called professional backers, but the regular race goer or those who stay at home and back their choices at newspaper prices— any daily newspaper. Perhaps it would be a fair average to say that seventy five per cent of the backing contingent do not make anything at all on their betting transactions, simply because tiny go about the business — it i nothing more than a business in a slapdash, lieck-ur-notliing, trust-to-luck sort of way, which must inevitably • nil in disaster. In backing horses for profit people must, or should, go about the work in a business-like style, exhibiting as much tact and judgment as possible. To start with, the man who frantically rushes about, asking everybody what his fancy is, and having none of his own, is bound to come to grief, and such a type of man had better leave racing alone, as between the multitude of advisers, combined with his own ignorance of turf matters, he is certain to fall to the ground. "Rolling stones gather no moss" is a true adage. It applies particularly to those who know nothing of the ins and outs of the turf and wander from friend to frit ad, paper to paper, tipster to tipster, hoping to be landed on the winner. There is no Method in their backing, and assuming they start following a certain line of selec ttoaa, they give half a dozen horses a chance and in the event of their failing they the backers hea] maledictions upon the tipster*! head and rush off to try the conclusions of another man, who. possibly, just then, is having his run of ill luck which visits every racing man or handicapper in his turn. So inexperienced backers go on until their bank roll is exhausted and i urse themselves, racing, tipsters ami horses. This class of faulty fellows you run into every day. It is as important for a backer to do his backing systematically as it is for a bookmaker to make a proper book, or a merchant to open an account. Few persons make money in haphazard betting. I may at once offer this advice to beginners. If they think they can make money on the turf without a system they might as well in the long run throw their money into the gutter. The layers are sure to win in the course of time. They live on this class of bettors and. assuming for an example, that a man starts with 00 capital. If he is of the usual slapdash lot. lie will risk his 00 in ten or twelve bets without a system, whereas the wise man, or in other words, the successful hacker, will with such a capital, start betting dollars, or at most two dollars on a system. A man of money nowadays is well satisfied if he can get I or »i per cent interest per year on his land or property investments, but if his transactions were of a betting nature he would consider twenty per cent totally inadequate. Why? Is not the one as much a business as the other. It is true that the turf transactions require daily looking after, but the profits are so miili greater and the turnover so much quicker. 1 have known many successful backers in a small way of business, who do not even trouble to go down to the race course, who. with a capital of 00, never think of risking more than two dollars on a single race and never back more than three horses a day. They, of course, work a system of increasing the amount of stakes on a losing day. One man I know says he backs a horse for to win and for a place, merely following the selections of a certain paper fir a certain race or races, sever backing mote than three horses a day and it has returned him splendid interest for over two years. If the capital is 00. one dollar is ample to l»et on the horse selected, with from 30 to ItH per cent increase in the event of a loser. By betting in such small stakes with such a capital it stands to reason you can bear a succession of losses without the least worry or suspense. You can smile as loser after loser comes up, knowing well tiiat your bank is strong enough to withstand and meet a far greater losing sequence than you are ever likely to experience. The worst of betting is when you stake in such a manner a - to stand only ten or twelve losses before yon are broke. Following the daily doings of the turf Is a real pleasure to those who have the inclination, and when racing can be regulaily indulged in with profit and without risk and trouble it is not surprising that it has so many devotees. The fault the majority of backers make is to bet in too big amounts, fancying that in nearly every transaction they must be a winner and lever preparing for the glorious uncertainty. I could matte many ways and systems certain successful backers have, but it may be gleaned from these few lines that failure lomes nine limes out of ten through inexperience punters betting too largely and without system. Reckless speculation is Pound sooner or later to bring the would-be millionaires to grief, whilst steady systematic backing is sure to reap its reward. I have had over twenty-five years practical experience racing and bare owned and raced quite a few good horses, have been for years ill close touch with quite a number of reputable owners, trainers and jockeys, have been in receipt of the best possible information from time to time. 1 have also acquired a thorough knowledge of the ins aai outs of the great sport and from every angle with all that. I unhesitatingly state that to follow racing regularly with the success that would bring a regular income, a thorough knowledge of men and hOTS I as 1 ir as racing goes, combined with tact and good judgment, a sane common-sense method of systematic investments is really absolutely necessary to attain that much desired success. T. F. It.
