Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-12-01
THE LOTTERY OF RACING

play morse combin1tions, dryly remarked
an old-time trainer out at Benning the
other afternoon, when the subject Of beat
ing a whole days race-card came up.
Horse combinations would break Rockefel-
Ter If he stayed with them long enough. Oh.
yes, I know, that combination tickets GO
through once in a while. So does a land
crab beat stake horse once in while.
But the occasional combination ticket that
goes through is the, exception that proves
the rule. / knew 81 young FELLOW VINO
worked in an Insurance office who one day
picked the whole card at Monmouth Park
OH combination ticket that paid 5000 to
$40. On the following day he put the whole
bunch-he wouldn't spend a cent Of it for
haberdashery or anything else-on Two
horse combination, both horses to WIN one
of them was a western horse tnat was
chalked upon the blackboard at 4 to o 10
win, and the other was pretty lairlsn
sort of race horse-oh, well, just ahou:
one of the greatest that ever lived, tnat s all
called Hanover. Perhaps you'll just re-
call a line or two about Hanover.
THE pool rooms held Hanover at 10
10 to win the Omnibus stakes 1t oldn
seem as If there was anything to beat tnat
race. Mike Dwyer, the plunger, put down
$4,000 to win $1,000 on Hanover at the
Monmouth Park track. Well, this young
fellows combination looked like the real
merchandise when the western horse won
his race in a walk. He'd got even money
5000 to $3,OO0-on the combination, ana the
proprietor of the pool room onered TO Duy
the ticket for 5000 two minutes before
the horses went to the post at Monmouth
Fark.
mot for $4,000 replied the young
fellow. You can buy two whole unsmoked
cigarettes for cent, and might as well
have the penny as you"
Son. an old-timer in the room SAID 10
the youth, you're bit shy on level-headed,
,,, hi 10 INV
accept. the $1,000 for that piece of paste
board. You can have a heap of fun with
yourself on $1,000. And 5000 In hand Is a
heap better than framing that ticket 10 look
at in your hall bed room, as 1t 8 just poSSlDie
you may have to do-for horses have oeen
stood on their heads at shorter prices even
than 1 to Is since the beginning OF the
merry-go-round game
81 know all that replied the young EEL
low, pig-headedly, and yet gamely. too, Tor
the matter of that, but l just want 10
have the satisfaction of throwing one uke
this the counter and getting all OF II,
without any laying off or monkey business
Hanover ought to be at to l,oVo any
how
"Then the instrument began to click, and
Laggard pranced out and beat the moe
and hoofs off of the mighty. the well-nign
invincibe Hanover. Hanover just dldn
feel like running that day. and he dldn L.
1t was worse than n defeat; 1t was as
grace; but that didn't help this STUBBORN
of getting that combination ticket framed
and I'll bet it holds the record as the
meanest uncashed horse race ticket that
was ever scrubbed with a blunt pencil.
There was truck driver out IN 81.
Louis six years ago who had the horse
fever pretty bad, and who dropped MS
change around the pool rooms about as
fast as he earned it,. One day he turned
up at the fair grounds with about 81 IN MS
pocket and the winners all picked to a
moral certainty He had 'em all written
down OF, piece Of yellow wrapping paper,
and he went to eight different bookmakers
and got them each, to lay him $SoO TO 81
against his bunch of selections The horses
on the list were nearly all Holsters, and
the bookies considered that they might just
as well annex the 81 bills for the ride back
to town.
THE truck driver walked around with
his little bundle Of eight combination tick
cts calling for G40O to SO with an it's-all-
notwithstanding grin on his home!y
phiz, and he was the butt of the gang In
the ring Then the races began, and
blamed IL five of the truckman's selections
didn't win right out of the pump. Scratches
had reduced the last race to field of two
by the time booking was due to begin on
that race and one of the horses-the one
the truck driver had picked for his COM
bination-so far outclassed the other that
most Of the books held him out altogether
in the betting, while some of them chalked
up to ~. BY this time the eight bookies
drivers combination were perspiring a
heap at the forehead, and each Of them
sent representative to the truckman to
find out if the fellow would accept $500
cash for his ticket.
"'Well. jes' to oblige you replied the
truckman to each of the bookmaker's rep
resentatives. and he stuffed $4,000 into his
clothes and went into the grand stand to
enjoy the race. The 1 to IL fav orite was a
cranky horse. and as soon as he got out
on the track, with the other horse follow
ing docilely after him, he gave jump,
and off he went, running away like an Ice
yacht The boy on him tried to choke the
brute to death. but the horse had the bit
in his teeth. and he raced at full speed for
a mile before the jock could pull him up.
Then the two horses got away, and the
crab beat the 1 to II favorite as far as you
could throw a baseball. The truck driver
turned up and laughed at the bookies who
had bought his combination tickets back
and all they could do was to cuss deep
and gruesomely and throw things at him. -