George Bernard Shaw once asked a female acquaintance on a cruise ship, ‘Will you sleep with me for £10,000?’, and received an affirmative answer. When he followed up by asking her, ‘Would you sleep with me for £10’, the lady took considerable umbrage, demanding furiously, ‘What do you think I am?’
‘That,’ said the playwright, ‘has already been established. Now we are merely negotiating the price.’
We are all after a price for something. Having been deeply impressed by his prep run on the Polytrack, I have been trying to find a bookmaker willing to offer me an ante post price on Blue Bajan for Lingfield’s Winter Derby. But the four I tried all limply insisted that they wouldn’t be quoting prices until the day. Considering how much in racing is done to keep their cashflow going, it is often a poor service we receive from the layers in return. The slide-rule men long ago took over from the cavaliers.
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