The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-11-29
Butte Department.
TOLD BY AN OLD JOCK
How Shrewd Backsr Lost Big Money
Through Tout
SOME PECULIAR TRIALS
PECULIAR
A Mistake Which Almost Cost the
Narrator His Life-Horses. Like
Women. Are Very I'm
certain. Says He.

DO I believe In trials7 Well, dc
and don't. Some trials are all right
but In the majority of cases they are
not to be relied on. For myself. / pre-
fer backing a horse on his public form
than on any tip I ever got on some
wonderful trial. Horses, like women,
are very uncertain; the very time you
think you have the beggar right It's
more than likely that will be the very
time you will get 1t where Elsie wears
her boa
Racing for pleasure Is the best of
fun. but IL you follow 1t for a living
there Is no harder game on earth. To
be right dn touch with 1t all the time
you have to go each day and every
day. rain or shine. Even then III dare
gamble that at the end of the year
most of the talent are on the wrong
side OF the ledger. At the best fl
a most uncertain way of making a Nv
ing. and taking 1t all around the less
you see and have to 90 with II the
better. Every dog has his day. and.
as heard an old racing man say once,
II wonder what becomes of all the
men one used to know; you never see
them nowadays; always new faces"
II he had only stopped to think most
OF the happy-go-lucky devils of by
gone days help to make up the rank
and file OF our rowing population.
1t IL very easy to know where they
go. Many a campfire have sat
around out West, and heard the oft
repeated phrase, "Ah. II so and so had
only won what a difference there
would have been" Its a grand game,
but very few of us have even been
able to stay the course. Talk about
being food for powder! All OF the
broken divisions were in their day a
rare feast for the bookmakers.
DO horses always run up to their
trials? Wen. I remember one that did,
and he upset one of the hottest favor
ties that ever started for the Derby.
Was / in the know? Yes, I was, up to
a certain point, and If l had done my
self what ] employed a tout to do in.
stead OF now following the noble game
for a living should have been doing
saying strike me so forcibly, IF you
want thing done well, do 1t your
SELF" as 1t did in this case.
Most OF my readers, no doubt, re-
member what horse won the Derby in
1879. IL they do not, by referring to a
racing guide they will see his name was
Sir Bevys. He was bred by Lord Norris
at Witham. and was by Favonius, out
of Lady Langdon, one of the best
mares of her day. She threw lots of
good ones. among them being Hamp-
ton. one of the greatest horses In
England. and the sire of some OF the
best horses that have been out in late
years
What made me fancy Sir Bevys for
the Derby? You can be pretty sure II
was not what they told me, for a
closer and smarter lot never lived than
the men who controlled the stable he
belonged to. But a man who goes rae
ing all the year around and keeps his
head fairly level, can generally form
a pretty fair idea, IL he understands
the game at all.
Sir Bevys only ran four times as a
2-year-old. His first win was at New
market. the first October meeting, in
a sweepstakes for 2-year-olds over the
Bretby course. AS / knew the trainer
fairly well. 1 asked him IL he fancied
him. He told me that the horse wasn't
quite Mt. That he spoke the truth was
evident. az the colt looked too big and
wanted few more gallops. SO / took
his tip and let the race alone. Glover
rode him. After a tremendous finish
with Fly by Night, who was quite a
good mare. he won by the shortest of
heads. He must have been a game
devil. for he hung like a BUN dog,
Glover sitting on him the last 100
yards and giving him the most fearful
rib bending. His next appearance that
year was In the Ditch Mile Nursery
at the second October meeting at New
where ne again ran a smash
ing race. just getting beaten a short
head bv Out OF Bounds, who was near
~ the best mare out that year. The
runner up was Sunburn, who the next
spring won the Dee stakes at Chester,
Just beating horse named Squirrel,
who was In the same stable as Sir
Revys. The third horse On the Dee
stakes was Flavius, who as a 2-year-
old. had stretched the neck OF the un-
beaten Wheel of Fortune In the Dew
hurst plate, running her to half a
aength. both all out.
The day Flavius ran third to SUN
burn and Squirrel in the Dee stakes.
his stable fancied him very much and
backed him heavily. knowing this, /
suggested to the trainer OF Squirrel
that he was not very far from the
front row for the Derby. He seemed
rather puzzled as to why I should
think so. and ! told him II was be-
cause OF his beating Flavius In the Dee
stakes. He certainly made me gasp
when he told me that Sir Bevys could
give Squirrel 2S pounds and a bea ting.
Well. here was the best thing / ever
had given me. Why. the Derby was
all over bar the shouting. Going up
on the train / told a now prominent
racing official about IT. He nooh