Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1893-02-10
GIVING HORSES SPEED
THE REJuVENATlNG DEVICE OF A
BROKEN DOWN SPORT.
How Wornout Race Horses Are Treated
So That They Make an Unexpected Burst
of Speed and Often Win a Race from .
Whole Yield Of "SeIling Platers.n

People who read the detailed accounts Of
winter races in the sporting dailies often
bee some reference to ths fact that 1.-The
winner, who was at 20 to in the betting,
had received the injection" or the para
graph may read in this way:
"Haytienne FLY, in the first race at
Gloucester yesterday, was evidently crazed
from having received a hypoder1nic injec-
ton, and at the post she got beyond con-
troll and bolted through the rail, throwing
Jockey Casey, who escaped unhurt, but re
fused to mount the FLY again She was
brought to the judges stand, and Ham,
who was substituted, managed her all
right, the filly running second"
Another instance from a report of a race
at Gutenberg: "Fairplay the unworthy
brother of Tournament, received the in
lection before he was sent to the post for
the last race at Gutenberg on Thursday
last, and it set him crazy, the horse being
almost unmanageable at the start, and
when it came to finish swerving out and
boiling against the outer rail with such
force that lie severely injured the foot of
Jockey Mason"
Some years ago there appeared on the
turf as the nominator to a lot of stakes
both in this country and Europe P. B.
u
had little money and colt by Volturno.
The horse was an utter failure in stake
races, and subsequently, ran at Clifton and
Gutenberg and other small tracks as Free
Lance, but the writer does not remember
Of his having ever won race of any kind.
He was so bad horse that Ring went
broke" before he got through with him.
While in the south, little after his sorry
experiences ON the turf, Ring heard this
story about an old colored man and bis
mule; A physician driving over one of the
country roads came across an old man
whose mule had baked, and whose efforts
TO make the animal stir had proved useless
whats the matter, unclef" asked the
doctor
dis yere mule am baked, sab, an nothin
won't start him. I'd glib dollah to make
um start, so might get UNI home"
''rll start him for you for nothing" said
the doctor, who got out of his gig, armed
with a hypodermic syringe loaded with
morphine. Going alongside the obstinate
mule, he jabbed the needlelike instru-
ment into the hide of the animal The
brute reared on his hind legs, gave bray
that woke the echoes for miles around and
started down the road on a gallop such as
he had never shown before. The astonished
dsrky started after the mule as fast as his
legs would carry him.
The story set the bankrupt horse owner
to thinking, and the result of his thinking
is the use of the injection nowadays on the
winter race tracks among the specimens of
broken down animals that are trying to
win races there for their owners. Ring is
making good thing out of it, and he has
had so much hard experience that he Is
profting by il and manages to make a very
handsome income for himself without any
risk. 1t is more profitable than playing the
races.
Racegoers, as distinguished from the
crowd of gamblers who go to the tracks for
the sake of INDUCING their propensity for
| play, have wondered often what that sort
Of thing meant. Some of them had chance
to hear of the injection once or twice while
the races were being run at the Brooklyn
track, and where it was whispered about in
very mysterious fashion that a certain horse
would win a race because "he had got the
injection" What that meant was all a
mystery to them.
1t means exactly what the words say in
print. Some poor brute of horse had been
converted into marked card for the use o.
the gamblers at the tracks by having in
jected into his veins, hypodermically, a
mysterious fluid the secret of which is the
possession of broken down sport, who is
known about the tracks as "Dr." Ring.
That fluid does seem to give to certain
horses a temporary renewal of life and an
apparent amount Of speed that they do not
show when not under the influence of the
hypodermic injections. The value of the
fluid to give life to horses of no particular
account was most remarkably shown in the
case of the horse Blackthorn a couple of
seasons ago at Gutenberg. Whenever he
was treated with this injection he was GER
tain to win his race. The odds against him
were always long before he got the treat
ment, however.
Morphine and cocaine are the tive drugs
that are popularity supposed to be the ones
used by Ring in his treatment of the horses,
but which one it is, and whether it is both,
no one knows, and Ring is shrewd enough
to keep the secret to himself. Horse own
ers are afraid TO try experiments, and they
will trust no one but this mysterious "Dr. "
Ring, though other men have assured them
that they can do all that the doctor can for
their horses. Ring is very shrewd about
using his stuff, and will only treat few
horses in the course of a month, and but
one horse In q race can have the benefit of
his treatment, If it is a benefit. So far the
owners that have had dealings with him
say that the treatment has left no bad eff
fects with the animals after a race, though
it sometimes acts to make the horses crazy
and unmanageable instead of simply CIV
ing them additional speed.
"Dr." Ring accepts no fee from owners
for treatment with his injection. He de
mands, however, that the owner whose
horse he treats shall put a bet of twenty
/ five dollars on the horse for his benefit at
the best odds to be had in the ring. The
horses treated are always at a long price,
and IL the drug works successfully the doc
tor makes a very good thing out of it. II
the horse does not win he suffers no loss,
except the cost Of the fluid, and he waits
for another chance to get his pay out of the
bookmakers.- New York Times.
Fighting Bishop.
On one occasion Bishop Selwyn was go
ing down the River Waikato with a Maori.