Putting seven pounds extra weight on one’s steed may seem a short cut to losing money but not to Tregonwell Frampton, keeper of the royal running horses at Newmarket thru 5 reigns, from Charles II to George I.

Frampton was a professional horseman, a shrewd match-maker who made a good living from the horses he trained. On one famous occasion nevertheless , this wily character was outfoxed. He accepted a challenge from the Yorkshire baronet, Sir William Strickland, proud owner of Merlin, a racehorse acclaimed throughout the northern counties. The match captured the imagination of the racing world: the champ of the north versus a favourite of the greatest southern coach. Merlin was sent to Newmarket for acclimatization under the care of a jockey-groom named Hesletine.

Acting on his master’s directions, one of Frampton’s grooms approached Hesletine who permitted himself to be ‘persuaded ‘ to run a secret trial between the 2 horses in order that Frampton would know whether or not to hedge his bets. Although the trial was supposed to be at the weights assigned for the match, Frampton’s horse actually carried seven pounds excess, so that when Merlin won by only a length Frampton felt certain the race was his and plunged heavily. So did others; both those aware about the subterfuge and those merely assured in Frampton’s judgement. Nonetheless Merlin too had carried half a stone too much in the trial: the reliable Hesletine hadn’t fallen to his southern tempters and had informed his employer of the imminent trial which Sir William made a decision to exploit to his very own advantage. The result of the race was a reproduction of the trial; with both horses carrying 7 pounds less than in their previous encounter, Merlin repeated his one-length victory. Many of those who had banked on Frampton and his steed now faced bankruptcy.

Such were the losses incurred and the volume of property that modified hands that it’s alleged that Parliament was triggered to pass an Act in 1710 to prevent exaggerated betting. Part of the Act authorized anybody losing over £10 in a bet to take legal action to recover the cash. Possibly it was hoped that the chance of not having the ability to keep winnings would deter large—scale wagers. In fact the Act stayed very much a dead letter, typically because betting men were generally happy to honour their requirements.

If they weren’t, there wasn’t any need for them to invoke the Act as they could simply refuse to pay, there being no legal support for winners saying their booty. Only when losers paid out and then changed their minds could the 1710 Act be employed; but losers were disinclined to try this for other legislation passed in the same year had made it illegal to even make a bet of over £10, so to sue for the recovery of losses was to risk prosecution yourself. Generally , however , the authorities turned a blinkered eye. Perhaps they shared the view of the Victorian commissioner of the City police who believed it was decidedly an evil for a spirit of gambling to prevail among the busy community but had ‘no wish to interfere with that class of folks who, having adequate funds and leisure, select so to get rid of their property?

The Act of 1710 had a further crucial clause which stipulated that anybody informing on transgressors could get up to three times the cash staked. This legislation too was rarely, if ever, employed. The betting elite would never tell on one another. Some of them had a peculiar code of racing morality but honour would prevent informing; they’d buy information from the stables but they might never sell evidence to the authorities. Tiny beer betters would be unappealing to informants for the probable financial rewards were hardly enough to cancel out the chance of physical assault, In any event the informant couldn’t be involved in the gambles himself, or he too could be up against prosecution: so far as racing was concerned this rejected much of the potential informing just because gambling books and horse racing systems were outstandingly personal property.

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