The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-25
BIG SWEEPS ON THE DERBY.
A Drawing in India in Which First
Prize Sometimes Reaches $75, 900.


From the New York Mail and Express.
Sweepstakes on the Derby are as COM
mon in England as bitter beer to a London
barmaid said an English traveller to a
reporter. '"rhe Derby sweep is simply
pool in which everyone who subscribes
gets a numbered ticket or slip. When
the sweep is closed the drawing takes
place, and the name of a horse is drawn
at the same time as a ticket until all the
horses in the field have been exhausted
Then the holder of the number that is
drawn with the horse that eventually
wins the race takes the sweep or pool.
/ That is the simple type of sweep and
! there are not less than 10000 of them
drawn in London alone, ranging from the
$50 ticket, sweeps at the big clubs, down
TO the shilling sweeps made in the public
| houses and workshops and stores, or in
| fact in any place where the working
| classes meet or are brought together.
THE two greatest sweeps on record are
the Indian sweeps of 1877 and 1880 The
plan out there is for the sweep to be man
aged by the stewards of the Umbalia race
meeting at Bombay, and tickets are sold
all over the country. The drawing takes
place at Bombay about a fortnight before
the race, the names of the horses then
| eligible being cabled out on the day of the
| drawing. In 1880, which was the year of
Ben d'Or's Derby, over $1,000 tickets
were sold at 81 each, making sweep of,
say, Sl35,000. It was announced by the
managers before the drawing that the
winning ticket would be worth $55, 600 !;
that the ticket representing the second
$4,000, and that $4,000 would be
distributed among those who held
tickets representing the other horses,
whether they started or not The Umba-
liza race fund was TO get $4,000, and
about the same sum was retained for the
expenses of the sweep. But the drawings
do not Away settle the winner, as after
the ownership of the various horses is
known they are sometimes, under the con-
ditions of the sweep, put up at auction,
and very lively bidding results. In such
cases the owner of the winning ticket di-
vides the first prize and the price paid for
the ticket at auction with the man who
successfully bid for it, and in the case of
hot favorlte ticket calling for $50, 900,
if winner, might sell for $4,000 or $685.
600. But in most instances the man who
draws the ticket owns IL outright and can
do as he pleases with it,
'In Ben doris year the number repre-
senting his chance was drawn by young
Englishman, who was clerk in a gov
ernment Office at Simla, the summer
seat of the government. He sold it for
81 500 with the proviso that if it won he
was to get $4,000 additional. Robert
the devil was the second horse, and was
drawn by an Englishman, who held on to
it, and did another Englishman who
drew the number that represented the
third horse. A little Hindoo lads chance
came out with the name of a we'll
thought of horse. A little Hindoo sold
it for $500, with $4,000 if it won, and
when a native wins horse in the draw
ing he generally does dispose of it. In
1877 the first prize in the Indian sweep
was even larger than in Ben doris year,
being worth over $751; 900. The other
prizes were not so large as in 1880, how
ever although the total sweep was but
S15, 900 or $50, 900 less.