The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-16
IF YOU MUST BET, DON'T HEDGE
A RACEGOER9 MAXIM PROVES
TRUE AT JENNINGS.
Bargain Sale ny . Fat Man at the Track
--Bookmakers In Fear or Black bet.
tors-Womcn Discover . Sure Method
Of Winning-Enect OF . "Dutch Book"

WASHINGTON. Nov. ia good many
diverting incidents occur at the Bennings
track. The Washington people are not so
old at the racing game as people are In
New York and other cities where the run
ming Of the thoroughbreds is more con-
tinuous sport, 30 that they make some
amusing breaks.
Few OF them have learned tho wisdom.
which has been almost framed into an
axiom by the metropolitan talent. never
TO hedge a bet, no matter how poor the
bet may look upon refection-the ex-
perienced conviction Of the talent being
that first impressions invariably prove
best.
On the day that the mare Alpaca won her
race after being played down from so to
to 80 TO /. fat, rudy faced man set up a
moan in the grand stand as the large field
Of horses paraded to the post.
Look at her; just look at herr he COM
planned. excitedly. pointing a fat finger at
Alpaca as she passed the stand,
The mare looked listless. tucked up and
generally out OF sorts. and the crowd in
the neig hborhood of the fat man laughed.
Il seen Teller with a sweater on down In
the paddock what give me a tip on Alpaca
and almost breaks both me arms brushin'
people aside in the bettin ring to get $40
down on her-and look at herl Why, she
ought TO be hitched to a night line. by the
looks Of her; she's "A lunch wagon horse.
] don't spose there 5 no chuckle head round
here that 'ud lie willin' to give me s. for
my bet on her-I got so 10 agin her
'I'n 60 you. pardner,' said a rough
looking individual In one Of the next lower
tier Of seats. what book did you get the
ever down with?'
The fat man named the bookmaker and
eagerly accepted the five-dollar note which
the rough-looking man passed up to him.
Then the two men exchanged badges, so
that In case the Alpaca bet should win the
man who had purchased the equity could
do the cashing, and then the barrier was
sprung from the seven-furlong distance
and the horses got away in line. Alpaca
led all the way and won by nose on the
wire.
1t was too much for the fat man. When
he saw Apacas number flash past the
Judges stand his jaw fell, his eyes closed,
his huge head joggled from side to side
and he looked like a man on the verge of
q stroke.
But he wasn't He was simply borne
down with the weight Of a speechless misery.
He sat and groaned dlsmally for ten minutes
In the meantime the rough-looking chap
who had bought the 81 900 bet for IS had
scrambled into the ring and dashed. He
returned to the stand as soon as he got
the bundle and touched the stil-moaning
fat man on the shoulder.
i amt no hog. pal" he said generously,
stripping a 500 note and forking 1t over
to the fat man. and 50 here's the little end
Of what you'd ha' got If you'd held on to
your bet. And now lemmc tell you some
thing, Never try TO hedge or climb out
o no kind Of bet that you make on a race
track. When you make up your mind
TO buy the goods. keep EN-. Stand pat.
Don't crawl, and never crawfish. | never
bought bum-lookin' bet from man on a
racetrack yet that the ticket didn't come
home. 30 you want 10 make IL nix the
renig. Got thatP
The fat man got it. and looked CRATE
ful for the advice and the 500 note
very black sport, plentifuly supplied
as TO his interior with the juice Of the juniper,
raised laugh in the stand on the day that
the old cripple. True Blue, won his race
In canter with the odds OF IS to posted
against him.
When the old horse romped past the
wire the black sport. who had front scat.
suddenly stood up and felt Of his head in a
mystihed sort OF way, and then he climbed
up on his seat facing the crowd, and SOL
EMMY inquired. still holding his head;
Is they doctuh aroun heah?-
A dapper little man with a Vandyke
beard stood up In his place In one Of the
back tiers.
I am a medical man. he replied.
We'll, come down heah an fix me up,
Nistah Doctuh,' said the black man. with
q gin-suf used grin. as he slowly climbed
down from his seat. All dun won thutty
dolluhs' on that oil horse, but All may be
dreamin', an II All m dreamin' All wants
haid.'
The crowd chuckled. the dapper little
medical man looked sheepish and then one
OF the policemen laid hold Of the happy
black sport and conducted him below
The layers who come down to the Ben
nings meetings have for some years been
wary OF laying big prices against horses.
particularly jumping animals, when il be-
comes evident that the colored element
are betting strongly on the high-fgured
animal.
The black crowd had an immense fancy,
for some reason known only to themselves,
Tor Beaureg gard the other day when that
hurdler was posted with large figure
against his chance. They all stood to 20
broke on the horse. and presumably they
went broke. for the horse finished in the
ruck.
But long before the field Of jumpers
went 10 the post the bookmakers had
virtually rubbed BeauregardI of their
slates. They remembered how in former
years they had been damaged repeatedly
by the black bettors' lunches at Bennings
on jumping horses.
The worst gruelling the layers ever got
at the hands OF the large brigade Of black
sports who bet their money on the Ben
nlngs track more than anywhere else
happened about four years ago. On that
occasion an old horse named McFonso,
that mad been hunted all over MARYLAND.
driven to buggy for years. and generally
mishandled and misused. somehow or
another captured the bunch fancy of the
ebony bettors.
The booknakers laid 200 to 1 against
McFonso. and took thousands from the
black bettors at that figure. Then they
rubbed TO 500. and still the money Of the
colored element camel in on the abused
McFonso. The black sports were still
putting down their bills when McFonso
was rubbed to 30 to /. Then something
happened.
McFonso was brought out on the track
for hts preliminary gallop. and he promptly
proceeded to take the bit in his teeth and
run away. He threw his rider, and making
the far turn hoped high fence and took
TO the woods
He was chased. and they found him
about half an hour later in swamp, far
from the Bennings track. He was badly
cut up around the legs from contact with
brambles and barbed-wire fence, and they
brought him back to the track as meek
as a lamb and looking windcd and all