Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1900-07-14
What do you know aboa, horses. any

4
Suburban in a walk
Then 1 laughed again. knew a few
about the horses myself, having been
pretty badly bitten at the game at
sundry and divers times for several
years before that, and i remembered a
good deal about old DIR. Rice
It's plain that you've got some.
thing in your head that doesn't belong
there L said to him. DIR. Rice win the
Suburban, hey? Say, don't you know
that DR.. Rice is three-legged cripple
and that he broke down SO badly last
fall that there's not one chance I'm a
thousand of his ever starting at all
again, much less starting in the great
Suburban, even II his name does appear
among the entries and the winter book
makers are laying price against
him?
That's all right about his not
starting, said my deskmate. He'll
start and he'll win. Better take ny hint
and play him for all you're worth in
the winter books, and when he romps
In you won't have to do any more KEY
hammering for livelihood. He's at
90 to in the betting now, but he won't
be anything like that when he goes to
the post
Then he went ahead and told me.
In the most serious manner in the
world, how the trainer of old DIR. Rice
was relative of his wite's, and how
this trainer, on recent visit at his
hat, had convinced him that there
would be only one horse in the Sub
urban, and that one DIR. Rice. He said
the trainer had told him that the old
horses bad leg was being carefully
patched up, and that by the time the
day arrived for the race he would be
able to make the run of his life. even
if he broke down and was never able
to run again after winning the Sub
urban.
"One night he told me that he was
going 10 mortgage a little house he
owned over in Bayonne, n. J., where
he lived during the summer months,
for $500, and put the whole bunch
down in the winter books on DIR. Rice
to win the Suburban at sixty to one.
thereby standing to win 500, 0oO,' as
he put it to me.
"Nou are, hey?' said ], and / got
up, put in n two-hour time slip and
rode right uptown TO ms fat to see
his wife, whom I'd known for good
many years. She was at the fat with
her mother, who was visiting her,
when | got there, and / waded right
in and told her what her husband had
told me about mortgaging that bit OF
New Jersey property.
Don't you ever put your name to
4 hp
Take an old friends advice, and don't
YOU do it, You'll be sorry if you do.
| To play horse with velvet money
on the very day OF the race is bad
enough and dangerous enough; but
for man to mortgage the only lit
tie piece OF property he owns for the
sake of putting all the proceeds on a
horse race that isn't going TO be run
for seven months is sheer imbecility,
and | wish you'd promise me that you
won't let your husband do anything
| like that
SAY, do you know she Just laughed
ut me? She had the DR.. Rice microbe
| just as bad as her husband did
| probably because 50 was her horse
racing relative who told them about
| it--and she said that she thoroughly
| approved of what her husband in
tended doing-that II was the chance
OF their lives to get rich, ETC., etc. /
went away thoroughly disgusted.
Two nights later, when my desk
mate got down to the Office, he leaned
over and said:
well, I've been and gone and done
IL. Got 81, 800 ON the little tepee over
In, A a.
with the winter boobies at sixty to
one against Ninety thousand'l be
neat little bunch to pull down,
wont tip"
You're an ass" was all was able
to say to him. Cor my disgust was
| great es s9df
a'tWer, you remember what hap
penedi don't you? The word was
passed around IN the late spring THAT
old DR.. Rice had been pretty well
patched up, and that ne HAD shown
some great trials for cripple. The
odds against him were cut to thirty
TO one. A week before the race the
odds were again cut to fifteen to one,
and when old DR.. Rice went to the
post he looked so perky and he seemed
to possess SO much of his old, mag
niAcent speed that there was a heavy
post-time play on him, and his price
| at the close was about six to one.
The old cripple got away flying. BE
was well Up in the bunch when bis
troublesome leg went back on him
| and he faltered, but with an exhibit
ton Of gameness such as was never
seen on an American race course, be-
fore or since, the old vagabond took
the bit in his teeth and moved down
! the leaders and flashed first under the
wire, literally on three legs! And he
never raced again, at that.
"You don't see how it ruins a man
to hand him 800, 900, you sayp Well,
you say that because you don't know
about this case. Ny deskmate col
lected all of his money the next day,
resigned his job and he's never been
worth hurrah IN Hohokus from that
day to Jnis He was fat hrole md a