The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-09
HORSEMEN GRUMBL|NG.
They Do Not Like the Crooks
and Curves of the Bay
District.
WHO BIDS UP THEIR HORSES
A Practice That Is Causing Much
Discomfort Among Owners
at the Track.

"Not satisfied with making US run for
our own money through that entrance
money fee, they want to take 1t away
from us if we do win purse" Thus
chirped in a disgruntled-looking horseman
that was one of a group that was discuss
ing the identity of the unknown runner
up of Sir Richard on Tuesday.
After months of racing the majority OF
owners at the Bay District track hnd
themselves as poor as the proverblal
church mouse. The California Jockey
Club may have the interests OF the horse
men at heart, but the poverty that exists
on all sides does not speak we'll for tnelr
handiwork. When an owner watching
his horse in a race says he hopes that ne
will not win, knowing full well that back
entrance money fees have eaten up the
purse, it does not tend to encourage
honest racing, and it is no wonder the Oft
repeated remark is heard in the ring, 1.-The
un dertakers have got so and So"
The bidding up of Sir Richard by an I'M
known bidder has caused great deal of
talk at the track, following as 1t did on the
footsteps of some equally unpopular boost
Ing. II their horses are to be bid up
owners want it done in an open-handed
manner and not through the channels of
suspicion and distrust.
If ever there was an angry HORSEPOWER
within the confines of the Bay District
track that man was Frank Taylor on Tues
day, trainer of the gray sprinter Sir
Richard. There have been few more con-
sistent performers at the track than this
gray horse, yet throughout the meeting he
seems to have been the especial mark of
. the boosters.
- He was not ''good thing" in his last
race. The public we're not fooled. He
went out l to favorite and won easily.
When he was put up to be sold an outsider
bid him up $500 over his entered selling
price. The audacity of the bidder, who is
known to turf habitues as man not over
buTdened with wealth, was q sumner.
Questioned in the judges stand, he said
that he had been deputized by a person
whose name he refused to give to go down
and bid 500 for the horse. OF course
when owners enter horse in a selling race
they know their horse is liable to be bid
up. That was why these races originated.
An owner can do his own handicapping,
but he must run the risk of a raise.
Much OF the bidding up of late has been
done by bookmakers = the poor down
= troGden bookie, the smiling penciler, as
the press has pleased to term him-he that
his dinners, while the poor owner, who has
his horses TO feed and numerous sundry
expenses to look out for, and without
whom bOokmaking would cease to be a
business, must be satisfied with the less
expensive necessaries of life. Still, If their
horses do not always run up to the high
est form. or they do not let the willy book
maker on to their good things, they are
, put down on the list for boost in the fu-
ture. Most of the bidding up at the Bay
District has been done by bookmakers or
by persons that were not owners OF a horse
running in the race in particular.
OF late Bookmaker WV. Beverly seems
to be the possessor of quite an extended
list of owners with the Indian sign" OPP
posite their name. On Wednesday of last
week he had Venus up in a selling race,
which ended in Owner Don Williams en-
deavorng to 'do-up'' the bookmaker. On
Saturday of the same week Mr.. Beverly
saw lit to give Crawford, an ordinary sell
ing platter, boost, for winning mile race
against anything but high-class field, the
mile being run IN l :43. This was the
: second time the little chestnut horse had
been run up within a short period of time,
Charley Quinn bidding him up in a pre-
vious race for not running up to his idea
of what form should be.
Bookmaker Beverly is credited with be-
ing one of the heaviest winners at the
Club is understood to have an interest in
the book. Now it is strange that Mr..
Beverly should have so many horses on
his list unless acting under instructions
from other interested parties. Crawford
and his stable companion, Road Runner,
have been running in the name of G. w.
Berry, and are trained by Tom Boyle, also
the trainer of Banjo. In inner circles it
has been limited that the two horse really
o bnlaO pa6 IN the million ai-p horSon1an a
B. Spreckels, and some few on the outside
who thought they could see a wheel within
a wheel, smiled and said that was lone
way of getting back at the new racetrack. f"
Mr.. Spreckels being one Of the promoters
of the new Pacific Coast Jockey Club.
Mr.. -Spreckels is not interested to the ex-
tent OF a dollar in either of the horses
named. His horses are all quartered at
the Sacramento track at present, and when
=. they do race in San Francisco it will be
'Tlnder his name, and they will sport his
familiar red, white and blue colors.
Earlier in the meeting when money was
more plentiful many of the richer owners
put their horses in at very light valuation,
but they seemed to escape the judicial ban
: of the bookmakers, with one or two excep-
:tions. Horses of the Kentucky able were
entered in the races at figures far from
their actual valuation, but whether it was
fear OF that awful bowie knife Colonel Jack
Chfnn is credited with carrying or because
he acted in an official capacity in the
judges stand, the stable was not troubled
with paying run-up money.
This stable was no exception, for many
other owners of good horses that seemed
to stand in with the fright set" entered
their horses at ridiculously low valuations,
the horses were heavily backed, tickets
were cashed and everything passed off
serenely. Meanwhile California horsemen
stood by and thought what good game 1t
was-for the Eastern visitors.
Bookmaker Beverly who seems to be the
aggrieved party in all of these selling races,
lis not infallible, for some years ago he en-
gagged in some transactions that did not
strike the management of Hawthorne
track, Chicago, as being in the best inter
ests OF the turf, with result that he ceased
to be member of the coterie of pencllers
doing business at the Corrigan track.
=. 1t might be well for some Of these exact
ing persons to remember that selling
races were hardly invented for stake
hefses. The class of horses running at the
Bay District track now III selling races
are as a rule of the "crab" variety and
cannot be expected to run as true to form
as handicap horses. If they did their
owners would be wealthy-but they are
not.
In the near future there will be a new