The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-03
RACE COURSE CROESUSES
AND HOW THEY BET.
Great COncOurSe of High Grade Millionaire HOrSemen to
Be Present at the Saratoga Opening.
BY PAUL DANNY.

won't be at Saratoga on the opening
day. more's the pity for the sake OF
entertainment, being otherwise engag-
ed in France at this time.
Like James r. Keene, Mr.. Whitney
never goes into the betting ring per-
sonally, his bets being placed for him
by his son-in-law's brother, Sidney
Paget 1t is through Paget, indeed,
that Whitney transacts most of his
racing business, and that's good
thing alike for Paget, Whitney and the
turf IN general. Paget, being English,
was born to the turf so to speak, ana
naturally knows a good deal more
about racing than most folk. Whitney
has the enthusiasm and the money
necessary to make a great racing fac
tor of himself, but among experts hes
considered too easily carried away by
his enthusiasm. Thus, more than once
Mr.. Whitney has paid fabulous sum
for some horse that has done on big
stunt, only to find later that the price
paid was altogether too high. Since
Paget has been a full racing partner of
the former Naval Secretary such
Whitney purchases have been less con-
spicuous, and the horses in the Whit
ney stable have been much better Sc
lected.
Handsome n. It. Wilson, Jr.
In this way almost as interesting on
the track as either Keene or Whitney,
or w. K. Vanderbilt, is r. T. Wilson,
Jr. Like Keene, young Wilson is sell
dom seen personally in the betting
ring, generally delegating the placing
of bets to Harry Vingut, parsonage
not very well known the country over,
but thoroughly typical of New York
and the race courses nearby, and well
known among the habitues thereof.
There is a rumor that he has done
very we'll at his wagerings this year
so far, and his advice is just SO much
the more valuable to his friends who
may ask him to place their bets.
Young Wilson, by the by, is almost
as handsome for young man as his
father is for an old one, and that is
saying a good deal, since next to the
late Coils P. Huntington, r. T. Wilson
the elder is one of the best-looking
men of his years that ever stepped
foot in New York. More than that, he
has aristocratic bearing and manners,
too, and the young man shares both
these characteristics, as BELTS one
whose sisters are married to a British
ambassador, a Goelet and q Wander
bilt. 1t is not certain whether any of
the sisters will be present on Sarato-
gas opening day or not, but probably
one or more of them will be, and if
so, both their celebrity and their
striking personal appearance will
make them the focus of as many eyes
as any of the turf celebrities. The old
est of the Wilson sisters, wife of Am
bassador Herbert, who will come to
America with her husband soon, is
quite as handsome as her sisters, Mrs.
Ogden Goelet and Mrs. Cornelius VAN
derbilt, but not so striking in appear
ance, for they are both blonde while
her hair is a quiet shade of brown.
Young Wilson is one of the best losers
in the country.
Nearly all the turf celebrities who
will be prominent at Saratoga repre-
sent wads, and heaps, and piles and
chunks of money, but none of the 9TH
ers will represent nearly as much
both directly and indirectly, as the
quiet-looking. middle-sized middle tint
ed, middle-aged man whom some of the
intimates term "Augie" This is Au-
gust Belmont, the present head of the
banking house of Belmont, and per-
sonal representative in America of the
multi-millioned Rothschilds. Mr. Bel
mont's name is not listed among the
officers of the Sataroga Association,
but he's power in the organization,
and he fills the place for so many
years held by his father as the main
stay of American high class racing
1t goes without saying that he
knows the ways of the turf thorough
ly, and it may be added that he is a
better horseman personally than most
millionaire patrons of the tracks. Both
his brothers-Perry, who married Mrs
Sloan, and who was once, but is not
now, power in politics, and Oliver H.
I'll AH.
derbilt-are likely to be on the grounds
tomorrow. Perry is a director of the
association. Both he and Oliver II. P.
dabble somewhat in racing, but not
at all in the degree that their brother
August does August is the most pop
ular of the three among their associ-
ates. None of them is communicative
to reporters, wherein they differ from
Mr.. Whitney and most high grade turf
men.
There are only a few of the racing
celebrities certain to be on view at
Saratoga tomorrow, and there is
hardly room on this newspaper page to
pay a compliment to each of them.
But surely. no mention of Saratoga
opening would be complete that did
not include Thomas Hitchcock, Jr.,
and John Sanford of Amsterdam, jol-
ly, good -natured and popular, and
prone to be photographed with his
hands on the ribbons. Mr.. Sanford is
one of the best liked of all the East
ern turf men, nor is his fame con-
fined to racing circles, for was he not
elected to the House of Representa-
tives a few years ago from his up
state district? And was he not then
the youngest congressman who ever
served? Sanford. like most of them,
has a nerve of steel when it comes