Abstract
‘Throwaway’ was the longshot winner of the Ascot Gold Cup race held on 16 June 1904, the day on which the action of Ulysses takes place. References to the race and its winner recur frequently in the narrative. As a result of a misperception by Bantam Lyons in Lotus Eaters (U 5: 519–41) and an unfounded allegation made by Lenehan in the Cyclops episode (U 12: 1548–57), it will be rumoured that another ‘dark horse’, Leopold Bloom, has won a small fortune from a bet placed at odds of twenty to one. This will lead indirectly to Bloom’s confrontation with the Citizen in Barney Kiernan’s pub. Never portrayed in the text, Throwaway the horse operates as a catalyst or trigger, the literary equivalent of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘McGuffin’, moving the narrative along, influencing character and exposing motive while remaining nothing in itself.
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