Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-18
BETTING ON RACES.
History of the Evolution of Placing
Wagers on Turf Events.
HOW PEOPLE ARE BENEFITED.
Man-to-Man Betting Too Simple for Weak
Human Nature.
BO0KMAKERS HERE AND IN ENGLANI
WRITTEN FOR THE prsp ArcH. I


According to the newspapers it is the
tion of a certain form of belief, or style oi
living. It has often occurred to me that q
man need not be very old jn order to re-
member the changes that have been made
in the methods of wagering on races. In
the early days, say 25 or 80 years ago, about
the only form of betting was what is called
the ''man to man" style. Many lovers
of the turf who were in the habit
of frequenting the old Fashion course
and the Union course on Long Island
will remember that this method was
popular on those race tracks. 1t is
about the simplest form of betting there is
known; man would stand up in his place
and proclaim, 'I'll bet $50 on Snowflake" :"
or whatever the name of the horse might be.
Another man would catch his eye and say,
''Tll 60 you, sits CO." or "taken," and
the money would be put up in the hands Of
some neighbor and the stake was paid over
as soon as the race was decided. The trouble
with this style of betting was its very SIM
plicity. I don't know whether the style of
racetrack audiences deteriorated or whether
the strain was little too much for weak
human nature but certain it is that this style
of betting gradually grew into disfavor.
1t was all we'll enough for two men who
were acquainted to take each others word,
as they would frequently do in those times,
without even putting up the money in the
hands of third party, but generally there
were too many losses to make this scheme a
success. Very often a man could not find
the stakeholder; the temptation was too
great for him and he had simply skipped
with the money. Then, as say, one of the
parties might be "welcher." For the
benefit of the general reader may say that
o "weicher" is a man who lays a bet, but
absconds if he loses.
THE AUCTION POOL SYSTEM.
This system of "man to man" betting was
followed by the auction pool system, which
became popular with sporting men almost
from the start. The first man to try this
scheme was a DR.. Underwood, of Lexing-.
ton, KY, a man who eventually became
well-known to, and generally liked BY
ing men in all parts of the country. This
system was as simple as the "man to man"
method of betting, and was certainly per-
fectly square. Standing on a chair in front
of tbe leading hotel or in some famous
sporting resort, DR.. Underwood would COM
mence somewhat IN tnls way: 'Ihere are
eight horses entered for this race-Rosie
Lee, Uncle Tom, Fleetfoot, Winall, Dandy
Jim, Nimrod, New Orleans and True Blue
how much am offered for first choice?"
The doctor would generally have something
to say about the pedigree of the different
horses, which turfmen did not pay SO much
attention to in those days as they do now
when the daily newspapers and sporting
journals give very full information about
such matters.
The audience would then bid just the
same as they would at any ordinary auction,
the auctioneer trying to raise the amount
offered as high as possible. The first choice
would, of course, represent the favorite.
We will say that sold for 800. Then the
same process would respectively be gone
through for second, third, fourth and fifth
choice, supposing there we're eight or nine
horses in the race. Then the auctioneer
would say, "now, how much am 1 offered
for the feld?" or the remaining four or five
horses neither of which, usually, according
TO the Judgment of turfmeh, stood much of a
chance of being a winner. So much would
be offered for the field. The auctioneer
would make entries of these bets in a book
and receive the bets in cash at the time
they were made. His entry in this case, we
will say, was something like this: