Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-01
RAcE-rRAcK SLANG.
Some of the Queer Expressions Invented
by the Turfmen.

by the Turfmen.
[Fron American Notes and Queries.1
Race-track talk is not always plain talk.
It is related that wild and woolly West
erner was once taken to an Eastern race
course, where the proceedings resemble
Kilkenny fight. On entering the betting
ring the Western man saw men and boys
pushing and struggling with all their
might aroung a stall, and heard excited
men shouting at the top of their lungs:
-Four to one on Proctor Knottw Where
upon he whips out his revolver, and bowls:
"Where is the fight? Pm not going to
stand by and see four to one on Proctor
He must have fair playp'
Perhaps the word in most common use
on the race-track is ''tip." If friend or
acquaintance gives you some quiet and
positive information about this or that
horse, this or that stable, the information
conveyed is called 'tip." A straight
tip" is knowledge from an authoritative
source. Synonymous with slip" is the
word pointer" Should you conclude to
try the advice given by tip" and take
chance in the game, you take what is
called sAyer." Again, if the odds Of
fered by the "bookIes" or bookmakers
should happen to be twenty TO one, or 50,
you would also take what is termed a
''long shot," In other words, you would
be taking 'long odds" or big chances.
Once more, on every race-track there are
persons who for small pecuniary consid-
Grafton will sell you "tips" Ordinarily
these sellers of "tips" are called "tipsters."
When they are in the employ of the
~
So, too, "capper" is a tipster who leads
the betting public astray.
A very peculiar but emphatic bit of
turf slang is the word "cinch." When a
person has a cock-sure thing, when he
can pick out without fail the winning
horse, he is said to have "cinch." This
word, taken from the Spanish, is used by
cowboys to denote the way in which their
saddles are frightened on their ponies.
There are no buckles ON the belly-band,
but in their place there is ''cinch-strap,"
which passes through two rings and is
tied by the "cinch-knot." The Western
phrase, "cinching up" means simply
tightening the girth. And it is signifi-
cant that, on the race-track, you hear The
expression san air-tight" The most en-
phatic form is ''lead pipe cinch," but
how that intensifes the certainty am I'M
able to say.
The turfman has quite number of
words descriptive of the horses. An ami
NAL that has been "fxed" or ''doctored,"
or one that runs as if something was the
matter, is called "stiff" Then there are
'skates." A second-rate track in New
Jersey used to have running races during
the winter months, when the track was
covered with snow and ice. The poor
animals, with smooth iron shoes, would
often slide over the course in curious
kind of fashion. Some turfmen declared
that they skated. Since then, second-rate
horses that run in the mud or snow are
called Skates"
The expression "mud horse" is often
used in sarcastic way. Thus, turfmen
notice that certain steeds only win on a
muddy track when the "right odds'-say
forty or fifty to one-can be obtained
against them. However, the popular term
for an animal quoted at big odds is ''long
horse;" short horse" is one that is
quoted at small odds. A common phrase
for horses that are not run to win is that
"they are not out for the stuff"-meaning
that they are not out for the money or the
purse. A horse is said to Ego wrong"
when he fails to respond; or he ''goes
lame" when he gets in the home stretch or
sin the ruck."
1t is not uncommon to hear the turfman
ask. "Who is in the pigskin?" That is to
say, who is the 'jock" or rider? A jockey
who makes mistake of one kind or an
other is said to make break" If the
"break" is particularly bad or glaring, the
jockey is 'chump"-a word not peculiar
to turf talk.
The wooden stalls, from which the
"bookies" shout forth their alluring odds,
forms what is known as the betting
ring" A spectator who has made wager,
and refuses to pay up after he has lost it,
is known as "welcher." The ''plunger"
is one who stakes his all upon single
race, or one who makes big wagers out of
proportion to his capital. "Great draft"
is winning a number of bets in succession.
A turfman betting with money won from
the "bookies' is said to be playing on
velvet. When he goes "broke," and loses
all his money, he is said to be walking on
his uppers."
Thus the turfman has invented new
words as he went along, to express new
wants or new phases of sporting life. He
has turned nouns into verbs and vice
versa; has made new adjectives, and has
adopted into his vocabulary the everyday
speech of all sorts and conditions of men
cowboys, pioneers, diggers, gamblers, stock
spectators and corner boys. His slang
thus smacks of the mining camp, the stock
exchange and the backwoods. Conse-
quently, turf talk is often rich in sound
and meaning, and, at times, strikingly
graphic and picturesque in appropriate
ness