If there are only two horses and the one who put up the stake comes in first, the money is spent on food for everyone in attendance and the winner himself takes nothing.
If there are several horses and the stakeholder’s mount still finishes first, he hands his stake to the runner-up—the so-called musalli—and again does not keep it for himself.
The underlying legal rationale is that his stake can never return to him under any circumstance, whether he wins or loses.
In Mālik’s view it is impermissible for the two contestants to furnish the stake together, whether or not a muhallil is involved, and likewise impermissible for either of the competitors to furnish it alone.
A second report from Mālik, however, allows the two contestants to put up the stake provided a muhallil is present, a position that agrees with the view of the other three imams. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said, “This is the sounder of his two opinions, and it was the choice of Ibn al-Mawwāz.” (1)
I reply: Mālik’s later followers, however, reject this; the opinion most widely transmitted from them is the first one we cited.
The requirement of a muhallil is a doctrine that people inherited from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib. As for the Companions, not a single report exists showing that any of them ever stipulated a muhallil or wagered through one, despite their frequent archery and racing wagers; on the contrary, the reports preserved from them state the opposite, as has been related from Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrāḥ. (2)
Al-Jawzajānī, the eminent scholar, said in his book al-Mutarjam (3): “He narrated to us…”