The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-11-25
THE DAY AT A HORSE RACE.
Picturesque Scenes I'm which New
York's Sporting Element Takes Part.

New York Mail and Express.
They Iumigated the coaches of seven spe-
ciaI trains They overhowed to the DASH
boards of countless trolley cars climbing TO
the Empire City track. With them came
pink news sheets-their women folk they
had left at home-carton badges, race
cards and a thin sprinkling of waist bags,
siupg binoculars. Otherwise there was
nothing to distinguish them from a flock of
commuters, midday patrons of an armchair
dairy parlor OF racing coats and horsiness
was there none.
AS New York is the sporting element and
the sporting element New York, perhaps
This was but natural. They swarmed-a
black multitude-into the grayeled drives
Their objective reached, they scattered.
You had room to take the measure Of
things The pavilion basement. rooted
with corrugated iron. paved with brick,
crutched with massive Orders. was alive
with bookies. Hernmed about with steep
office stools, grated money tills. score
blocks yellow spcnges they sat immersed
in oyerWeightS, past performances ana the
manifold details OF form at glance. A
breath OF the Nall-street exchange exhaled
from this annex. Here was the suDdued
roar, punctuated by sudden shouts, the
paper cluttered floor, the hustle or men
copying quotations from q board. In the
distance the same click of a tape machine.
Penetrating further you were in vast
Coney Island booth trimmed with hot lunch
bars, fruit stalls and counters Tor the sale
OF sea food True. the prices were higher
graded The funpretentlouSnesS or what
lew women there were helped out the illu-
sion Up among the rolier-backeG benches
of the grand stand, rising tier on tier. the
careless festivity which ever hedges round
a race track was at its highest.
Further. all tokens of political campaign
ing We're absent For once you had eS-
capped the folds of the star-spangled BAN
ner. Until the sun dropped you might for
get that hastings blistered with full dinner
pals and empty scuttles were in existence.
In front, the judges temple with its double
oyershot umbrella lids. Behind, the rich
loan of the ovoid track-caught with red
cufred black-cuffed distance posts-in
course of being raked and narrowed.
The cavalcade brings up before the
judges stand. All whips are pointing 10
the winner. He lifts his hand, as school
boy asking his teachers permission. Now
in trice, painting horses are stripped
bare Jockeys fling their whips aside, and;
carrying their harness tackle. are weighed
out like market heifers. They defile slowly
to the dressing ROOM
AT the door of this. you gain your first
intimate impression OF lightweight
jockey. Little mortals, some apparently
not yet emerged from their cradle stage,
are iimping IN splashed Wellingtons, be-
spattered silks. Their horses belly-bands
the ground. The silks that gliinmered
bIithely in the field are at close range
faded. rubbed and sadly gashed. Jaunty
cap-bows have become united in the strug-
gle and now flank small. flushed. jaded
faces They stumble to the stove-warmed
4 Jockeys box with its woody smell. its
thick dado Of variegated silks and pushes.
GAY tunics are. shed. and steaming bodies
toweled Then brides. saddles, stirrup-
feathers are In their turn rubbed down.
Outside. a stableman Is sponging the
mouth and muzzle of a spent thorough
bred From the low, lath-wood stalls
nearby fresh horses are sallying proudly.
But seei they are preparing the third
race the blue. ribbon Of the meeting
The position board skates up the poles.
A iangle like the warning bell of an ambu-
lance BY the paddock the jockeys are be-
ing weighed In The band crashes A bu-
gle flourish from over against the paddock.
The position board is now capped with
time plank. a second and slightly
longer flourish from the Judges temple
Here they come. Through the wicket north
OF the clubhouse stream jockeys afoot then
jockeys a-horsel It he riders pace into the
track q stable retinue into the central
field. Mounted jockeys ambling in Indian
file, Jockeys canteriEg. head toward the
starting post. You take notice OF hori
xontal tape ladder. with string diagram at
tachment BEHIND IL a tansle OF curveting
and caracohng. horses. The operator APP
plies the cont5pt by closing the two forks
OF = tiny c1tapult The ladder barrier