The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-20
ONLY 100000 WINNER.
GETTYSBURG PhiIv Is Having Some
Tough Days.
From the New York Herald


son opened, is now just trihe over forty
thousand dollars ahead of this years
game This statement is official and
comes from Mr.. Smith himself. PHI
told me all about his winnings and losses
this season and last season at the Impe-
rial hotel met him In the reading room,
where he was strengthening out his ac-
counts for his betting on Tuesdays races.
The table at which he sat was Uttered
with papers-papers of two distinct kinds.
One sort, betting slips and memoranda,
| represented in cold relentless figures the
amount of his losses on Tuesday at
! Sheepshead Bay race course, and all
| debts, all to be entered on the wrong side
of ''Phns" ledger-vouchers for the great
| plunger's "Black Tuesday"
| Not a single credit slip In the lot; moth
ing to subtract from the sum total of his
Tossess- All the bookkeeping was confin-
ed TO the first and simplest rule In arith-
metic the mere addition of what he and
! his commissioners had returned to the
source from which it had originally come.
Piled on the same table were copies OF
| all the local dailles, with more or less de-
tailed accounts of how and why he had
lost his money There never was bet
ting man yet but who was an omnivorous
reader of everything bearing on his fav-
! orite sport.
But for all the enormously expensive ma
ture of the work he was doing at that ta-
bic Mr.. Smith was as clean shaven, as
pale-but no paler-and as imperturbable
as ever Just as impassive as nc is when
a driving race is finishing that may mean
scores of thousands for or against him.
What did 1t amount to after all? The
| ring had simply won back some OF their
own money. and "Pittsburg Phil" good
loser. as he is quiet winner, was quite
| ready to talk calmly and impartially about
| the most disastrous days racing he had
| known in many q long season, for he play
ed five races and failed to win a bet. His
losses on the day footed up about $1,000.
! MANY persons seem TO think" said
| Phil that every time l bet win, but I
am sorry to say that it Is not So Since
| the season opened 1 have battled with
more or less success against the books.
| From the beginning of the Morris Park
| meeting until the end of the last Sleeps
head Bay meeting I had a remarkably
| strong run of good luck, although starting
off $29, 900 loser on the opening day of the
| season. Igotall that back, and when I
| balanced my accounts before leaving for
| Saratoga I had won a little over 100000,
| Then my luck changed"
| "At Saratoga" he continued, II lost
90CC0, and 1 have had pretty rough pas
sage at the local tracks since my return
| Out of eleven races 1 played during the
| last two race days 1 picked but one win
ner. During that time [ lost between
$4,000 and $4,000. At the present time l
am only about $4,000 to the good on the
| season.
TUESDAY was the first time in nv life
that l ever overbet myself and the big
| prices laid against the horses l fancied
| and the eagerness Of the bookmakers to
| take all the money 1 gave them was re-
| sponsible in great measure for my loss
es,' frankly admitted Mr. Smith For in
CT IL,
| won. 1 told my Commissioners to keep on
backing Souffie as long as they could get
| to to win and to 8 a place. After they
had been gone some time / realized that |
had failed TO Limit my commission, and
| went looking around the ring in the hope
that l would be able to see some OF them
| and tell them to stop playing the mare;
| but couldn't find them, and when flgur-
! ed out the money l had bet on the race it
| was over $1,000 That is only one of many
Instances in which I overplayed myself on
I Tuesday. Urlel also cost me a lot of money.
/ thought he would win the Futurity sure
/ If he had L would have burned up the
ring, because you see, l was betting reck-
| lessly, and winning at the odds / was get
| ting for my money would have made me a
great winner. Betting big money on race
is a frightful strain on mans system. I
! have frequently gone to the track with the
determination not TO bet more than $500 on
a race but l tell yoI. I find out when 1
| get in the betting ring that resolutions
are well enough in their way, but the
! temptation 10 bet is TOO strong, and L soon
find myself playing as high as, and some
times higher than l ever played before in
my life The habit seems to grow on
man, and he can't stop I would give a lot
of money to be able to go to the race track
and only bet $500 on a race"
How do you account for your recent
| big Iosses?'' / asked.
+f
regretfully. IF a man owns a horse and
! he is fairly good racer he will favor
| him because of the ownership and not
because he is really the best horse. Ny
| horses cost me "A lot of money, and they
| have taught me a lesson, and that is
| that betting man should never own
a race horse 1t prejudices his Judgment
and costs him a lot of money / am
! going to sell my stable just as soon as
! possible. L expect to sell the horses at
! auction at the end of the Sheepshead
Bay meeting. The Winner and Belmar
| have both cost me a lot of money; so
! has Voter. / do not own Voter, but my
! brother trains him, and seeing so much
| OF him l naturally favor him against
! other horses. Looking back at Voters
! race yesterday, ! can see, if had been
| a little more calm and not so prejudiced.
l would have bet on Cleophus for the
| place.
"It doesn't pay to know too much
| about a horse. either" resumed Mr..
! Smith. "Rubicon is a shining illustration
| Of this fact. In training we couldn't
! get him to run a yard, while in his races
| Sloan couldn't hold him except when
| bet on him. He won six straight races
and I didn't have a cent on him In any
| of these events. The seventh time he
! started, which was at Brighton Beach
I made up my mind that he couldn't
lose, and that he was sure to run true.
1t cost me 5000 to think so, because
Rubicon never tried to run until 1t was
| too late, and of course he was beaten
If he had won that race / would have
! sold him for a snug sum, but he lost
and the prospective purchaser refused to
buy him.
81 am willing 20 back other fellows