The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-05-23
THE BI,rERS BITTEN.


returning with his party from the races the
other afternoon.
All of them had to give it up, naturally.
whats the answer" they said.
"The answer is just as l state tia walk
over that wasn't walkover," said the
western man. | saw an affair like that
few years ago in Montana.
Nowadays the discipline of the Mon
tana tracks is about on a. par with the
high standard of race-track discipline in the
east, but when the game first began out there
the crookedness engaged in by all hands,
from owners to jockeys, and even stable
boys, not to mention the conniving bookles,
was something fierce.
This walkover that wasn't a walkover
occurred during the second season of rae
ing at Butte. Nine horse owners were IN
volved in the cute little job. None of them
had been having any luck with his string,
and they all got together and arrived at
the conclusion that they'd go after the
money with gnarled club, they required it
so badly in their embarrassed business. So
they decided to do it in this wise: Each of
the nine was to enter horse to run in
six-furlong sprint, and on the day of the
race, and about a couple of hours before
the arrival of the hour for the event, eight
of them were to scratch their horses, leav-
ing just one of, them in, and this one, OF
course, to have a walkover-just solitary
canter around the track, while the gang in
the stand whistled an appropriate quick
step, to capture the big end of the purse.
What good was this going to do the
other owners mixed up in the little play!
Oh, nothing, except that they were to send
their commissioners to pool rooms all over
the state to put down gobs of money on
the horse that was to have the walkover.
All of the Montana pool rooms quoted
morning odds, and all that the commission
srs had to do was to plaster their princi-
pals bank rolls around at the morning
horse-betting figures on the animal that
was to swing around the course all alone,
and then to go around and collect armfuls
of money after the confirmation of the
walkover.
''Well, the job was cleverly planned, and
it went along on creased skids. On the day
before the race the nine owners had con-
ference for the purpose of picking out the
horse that was to have the walkover. Some
of them were for picking out the best ami
NAL of the lot, the one that would be nat
ural first choice in the betting, so that they
could claim, in scratching out the other
horses, that they were afraid of the favor
lite, and, knowing that their NUTS had no
chance to win, had concluded to take their
horses out. The majority, however,
wouldn't listen to this plan. They wanted
big money from the pool room proprietors,
and they knew that they couldn't get big
money if they left the natural favorite in
to have the walkover. So they finally
picked out a horse that figured to be Is
or 20 to one shot in the betting to execute
the lone gallop around the course. The COM
missioners were given the name of the
horse that was to have the walkover, and
on the night before the race they all
jumped out in different directions through
out Montana, to get their principals money
down in the pool rooms of the different
towns.
Son the morning of the day of the race
they all wired in to the nine owners that
they'd succeeded in getting the money down
at odds averaging Is to one against, and by
the time all of these returns were in the
pool rooms of Montana stood to lose some
thing like 100000 on that beautifully ar
ranged walkover. As soon as the owners
got word from their commissioners that the
money was down they began to scratch out,
one by one, the last of the eight horses
only being scratched about an hour before
the race was to come off.
Several of the owners were called into
the stewards room to explain what their
idea was in scratching out their skates and
permitting common platter, that was
bound to be rank outsider in the betting,
to elope with the big end of the purse,
simply by breezing around the course alone.
They all told the stewards that their horses
had been taken more or less sick that
morning owing to a new lot of inferior
feed that had arrived at the barns the day
before 1t was a pretty ishy explanation,
that, but, as I@say, pretty near any old
thing went on the Montana tracks at that
time, and the owners got away with their
little yarn all right.
"Well, the walkover was the second event
on the card, and when post time for the
second race arrived, the solitary mutt came
a-dancing out of the paddock onto the
course, and started to jog around the track
amid the whistling and stamping of the
regulars in the stand.
when the horse was nearing the far
turn on the back stretch something queer
happened The animal was seen to come
to gradual stop, and just as he was due
to make the bend he came to a dead stop,
gazed dreamily over the railing, and then
deliberately lay down in soft spot right
in the middle of the track. The boy on his
back slipped off, and he started to. punch
and poke the walkover horse, but it was
no use.
''The skate was just too sleepy to yield to
any sort of persuasion short of dynamite,
and the hundreds of track followers who
hustled up to the far turn to see what the
matter was found the horse sleeping just
as peacefully as grounding. coiled up in
his burrow for the winter. They did every
thing imaginable to get the mutt to stand
up and finish his walkover jog so as to fin
ish within the time limit, but it was abso-
lutely no go, and the time limit expired,
thus making the race no contest, while
the animal lay there on the track, a-slum-
bering.
eff you ever saw a sheepish-looking lot
of horsemen, those nine owners were the in
dividuals. Their hog-killing hadn't come
off, and not only that, but they had lost
all of the money that their commissioners
had bet, for morning betting in pool rooms
is the so-called 'pay-or-play' sort, and,
the walkover horse having failed to exc