2-888-669 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketch in the Ring - "I'll Bet Against Clincher", 1850. Turf accountant William Davies at the Epsom horse races: '...the reader will recognise a well-known member of the ring. The sketch...is in accordance with the comic pencil of the artist, Mr. Leach; and...is a good resemblance...Davies is now mostly and justly so denominated ''the leader of the betting-ring"...[He] has been the sole unaided and unassisted architect of his own fortune: gifted with a clear head and quick perception, calculating mind, and most retentive memory, he has undoubtedly turned those natural endowments to the very best advantage, and he now shines forth in the sporting hemisphere as a "star" of no common magnitude; his unassuming deportment and unwavering probity of conduct during his career on the turf (as yet little more than eight years), have earned for him "golden opinions" in every sense of the word.'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.