Evening star., 1898-11-12
WHY HE-IDOES NOT BET

NO. said a well-known citizen and Jo-
nah of Mt. Pleasant. I'm not going to the
Benning races, by long shot (con-
found thatphraseD-nor to any other races;
nor am going ta read the results; nor2am
going to permit any man, even my most in
innate friend, to say race to me while the
meeting Is going on. 1 never was what
you call al racing man, although, when
was younger, I've put my watch in and
smoked pipe for awhile after some of
the meetings-yet never trained with the
horsey, h6t-sport class; never had time.
But, for all that, FL bet two dollars that
had harder thpow-down on single one
mile horse race than any check-suited, red
necktsd, handicapping railbird OF the pad
dock that ever stepped on barrel-hoop CT
chewed straw. I've never seen horse
race since. never shall see horse race
again, unless I'm kidnapped and hauled to
track unoeknownst to myself, so to
speak, This is why:
About five years ago / went over to New
York on business. When l got through
with the business 1 went out one afternoon
to see the racing at Morris Park l hadn't
been following the horses or keeping any
sort of line on their work for a long while,
and 1t was probably for that reason that l
won some money on that afternoon al MOI
ris Park. just played the plugs whose
Among the horses that 1 won on was a rag
named 10 Damn. I put down SD on Jo
Damn to finish third in his race, ana got 2
to on my money. 10 Damn finished third.
He was the last horse in the race to get
away from the post, in field Of fourteen,
but he picked UP ground all the way around
it was a nlile race-and came like cy-
clone at the finish In couple o more
jumps he would have won the race. AS it
was, he was only beaten a nose and neck.
Jo Damn wasn't pretty nor styilsh-iook-
ing brute, but he struck me as being about
as nifty a stretch-fnisher as ever L saw.
He looked to me like a horse that didn't
kpow when he was licked, and / like any
kind of living thing that's built that Way,
particularly horse or man. L carried a
strong admiration for 10 Damn away from
the Morris Park track that afternoon al
though none of the regular race followers
seemed to think he was much.
"A couple of weeks after L got back 10
Washington the fall race meeting over at
st. Asaph began. 1 didn't particularly ltch
to go over to see the racing until one morn
ing I accidentally caught the name OF 10
Damn among the entries in a swell race
Then 1 began to bark back mentally to
that fine finish 10 Damn had put up for me
at Morris Park, and | ended by deciding to
go across the river that afternoon to see
whether or not he was really the counter
felt he was considered by the racing fra
ternity. The horses that Jo Damn was to
go up against in the race were just about
the finest in :ralning-all handicappers
with any number Of brackets to their
names. One Of the actually great horses
entered i'll that race, for example, was the
famous Sir Waiter then three-year-old,
one of the seasons big stake winners-a
long-distarce horse that's still making
strong bids for purses with his weight of
eight years. sEut the swell horses entered
against 10 Danu didn't bother a little
bit. Before | went over to st. Asaph that
afternoon l did d lot of 10 Damn talking
around among my friends. They all gave
me the laugh. said that Jo Damn couldn :
beat bread wagon, and told me I'd be a
candidate Soy 4 lunatic asylum if / put
down my money OF such crab to beat a
lot of thes4pest horses in training.
'All right told 'em. you'll all be
sorry if you Gon't play 10 Damn, all the
same ~ yoj
Well the urshot OF all this was that 1
sort O. half convinced about half a dozen
Of my frieads that | had the 10 Damn pick
about right. They weren't going over 70
the track these fellows. and so each OF
them, just as a. little flyer, handed me a
$40 note ta Luz ion 10 Damn to win, pro-
viding l could get good as 10 to l on
him. "a
Il went ova: q ST. Asaph and just watch
ed the first tw d races on the card, without
playing them l. was waiting for the third
race-the 1Jor Psnn event Meantime
talked with some fellows L knew in the
stand, and told them what l thought of
10 Damn 4 cfIa1res. They, too, hooted me.
=
catch a Caterpillar with two-blocks' start.
Don't be fof1isisi l. .-- H =.-
Il smiled at them in a superior sort of
way, like a man does when he has a 'huncn'
that his good thing is bound to go through,
and waited for the betting the race to
open. When l had look at the books I
came near going down.. Sir Walter was the
favorite in the race at 5 to on-or, to make
it more clear, 2 to against-and there were
three or four horses in the race that weren t
much better in the betting. 1t was a thir-
teen-horse field, and the horse l had picked
to win, 10 Damn, was the rank outsider at
$50 to 1 against in the betting! Well, that
sort O. got me going. l was afraid there
must be something the matter with Jo
Damn, or he wouldn't be at such a lonjs fig
| ure as that l couldn't make it out. Then I
| got my Irish up, and became ugly and stub
| born, and decided that I'd just play 10
Damn anyhow, rank outsider or no rank
outsider. l had $50 of my friends money to
put on him to win, and 1 was going to chip
| in $40 of my own, making 500 altogether,
which, put on Jo Damn at odds of $50 20 |
against, would have made me stand to win
| $1,000 on the race. / walked up to one
of the bookies' stands to make the bet and
| was just handing the money over ca 10
| Damn to win, when business friend of
| mine whom l hadn't seen knocked nv arm
| Up-he had heard me say to the bookie
| one hundred On Jo Damn to win'-and haul
| ed me away from the bookmaker's stall
! " Are you crazy?' he asked me- Don't
you know that 10 Damn is the deadest one
| that ever came down the pike? What do
you want to throw your money away for?'
| well. | Wayered at that and listened 10
| him. He said that Sir Walter ought to be a
l to 30 shot to win. and proved it by refer
| ence to his dope book So, losing hold of
| my Irish for second. 1 walked over to a
| bookmaker and put down the 500 on Sir
| Walter to win at to 5. only standing to
| win $40 on the race. l felt sorry l had dane
| this even before the horses were off 1T the
post, but there was no help for 1t then. So
| L climbed into the grand stand to watch the
| race.
| We'll Sir Walter, grand-looking brute
| got away from the post first, and started to
| tiptoe his field. AT the quarter he was
seven lengths ahead of the bunch I
| watched for 10 Dann's colors. and I was
| glad hadn't bet on him when l saw that he
| had got away from the post last. and was
| moving around In the ruck like a lobster.
| AT the half Sir Walter had a lead of five
| lengths, and seemed to be only galloping
| the others trailing after him like lot of
| wing-clipped hens At the three-o,1arter
| pole, Sir Walter still had his lead of five
| lengths, and was going easy At the be-
| ginning of the far turn I noticed a horse
| shoot out Of the bunch way behind and set
| sail for Sir Walter the leader. I nut nm
| my field glasses. and the colors Of that
| horse were Jo DAMS. He was going Jiire
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