The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-19

Saw the Horse That Threw Him
Pulling n Grocer's Wagon.
From the Washington Post.

ruling n GrOcer-s wagon.
From the Washington Post.
Every once in a while, remarked a
well-known steeplechase jockey with
revengeful twinkle in his eye, Il go
down to the barn of a little grocery
firm on the East Side. in New York,
and take good long look at horse
munching corn there, and gloat over
him. and say to him in an undertone.
You will, will your and enjoy myself
a whole lot when the driver of the
horse comes around and bitches him up
to a heavy wagon. and takes him out
for a ten or twelve-hour spin on the
rough pavements. delivering grocery
store provender to the folks along the
stores route. I'm not such dead
mean man, at that. but I've got 1t in
for that horse, and I'm just naturally
glad that he's landed as the hauler or
an East Side grocery cart. Never mind
the horses name. He was a jumper,
and a hot one. at that, but he got me
into more trouble than I ever had in
this business and l can't work up 10
cents worth of sympathy for him. |
used to ride him good deal in the
jumping races around the New York
tracks, and l never had the leg up on
him yet he didn't get me into some
kind of a mix. l was set down on &C
count of that horse more than half q
dozen times from periods ranging from
a week to ten days, and the last stunt
he did to me was to get me ruled off
nearly year ago. He was agin me
from every point of the clock. and
couldn't get him TO handle me right.
He'd take me out in front in a rate
and Jump like a bird, and show that
he had six TENTH of mile win IN
him. and then he'd shut up like jack
knife while l still had him undeT
wraps. and get himself beaten off, and
then I'd be yanked to the stand to ex-
plain - the stewards why I'd sawed
the horses head off coming into the
stretch. He'd sulk on me and peck
at every Jump. and then tumble me
into the Liverpool and land me in the
hospital and about three days later.
with some other steeplechase jock up
he'd prance out and win by Phila-
delphia block putting it up to me to
explain why | hadn't done anything
with him in his last race.
"The last time l ever had the leg up
on him was in two and-a-half- mile
steeplechase at Sheepshead Bay. He'd
been behaving so well, and taking so
kindly to me during the exercises Id
been giving him. and he was in such
swell shape. that / thought for sure
that was finally going to get race
out of him. He was in at l3S POUNDS,
my riding weight, and he was in con-
dition to. go all day, and even AFTER
all the trouble I'd had with him l fig-
ured that he had made up his mind to
make good to me.
"There was is to against him, and
the mean old plug had me so bam-
boozled that l put the last and only
500 that | had in the world on him.
II looked like case of garroting poor
old grandma. for $1,000. And it would
have been, at that, if that horse hadn
had the devil in him exclusively Tor
me- He was a front-runner ana l
took him out in front, and at the end
of mile / was at least sixteenth 10
the good of the field. and my horse go
ing like a just-oiled clock. Then ne
began to toss his head on me, and to
swish his tail, and l stood by for trou-
BILE. If any other rider had been aboard
of him he'd have gone right on, but
he had the boots on for me, and l
knew from the way he acted that he
was going to make some more turf
history for me. / went to the gouge
and the bat to see if I couldn't pound
some sense of duty into him. and he
came right back by going over the next
jump like a grasshopper just to snow
tldt he ndQ II III MN " ~ iSht
on and win, and that he wasn't lit
tie bit tired-but that he didn't intend
TO do anything like that l knew way
down deep. kept hammering him,
however, and let out all the links. so
when the thing happened they could at
least see from the stand that l wasn't
snatching him. He seemed to get next
to it that I was doing this for the
purpose of squaring myself with She
stewards, and he made up his mind
that he's try some other scheme. He
didn't want to take the chance of fall
ing down, so what did he do, when l
was pointing him at the last jump but
one from home-but deliberately sheer
off and plump into the left-hand wing
of the jump putting me over his ears
We'll, that's about all. l limped over
to the stand and found that they had
mine all ready for me. They accused
me of deliberately riding the horse into
the wing to beat him. and of course
couldn't tell EN- that I had bet my
last dollar in the world on the horse.