The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-05
FREAK BETTORS ARE BUSY.
PLENTY or QUEER WAGERS AT
THE TRACKS THIS YEAR.
&l 600 Won and Lost ON The0ry-FiRe
Points Made by LOsers--A Sausage
Maker VINO wanted an Explanation
Two Men Who Asked n BOOlSmaker
for Marker-HOsers who Kicked.

Inc season young yet, Out We al
ready had more kinlSy peoples numbers
on my sheets than ever had before in the
course of whole summers racing re-
marked member of the Metropolitan Turf
Association. noted as a bookmaker who does
not refuse one bet in thousand, THE
freak bettors are more numerous this year
than they ever were before since l first
began to hold down stool, and that goes
back some several tides.
Il like the freak bettors They are 30
droll. l don't care whether they sting me
or not, l like them. they are so naive, yes.
AOne of them, by the way, did sting me
the OF her afternoon for thousand. He had
on what looked to me like a two-days'
leftover, and tackled up to my stool just as
was making ready to go out to the lawn
to look at the third race, for the horses were
at the post.
"'Say,' he said to me, I'll lay you twenty
the favorite finishes last, and he poked the
bill at me.
"'Why, that'l Just pay my manicuring
bill said |, and took the twenty.
Nothing could have looked much better
than that did for the favorite was 2 to 5
shot in field of four horses, with the rank
| outsider nj 50 to L.
You ought to be Pink, Jack, said to
him. You must know something about
the gee-gees in this race
Nope said the man with the leftover.
7 don't know one Of EN- from the other
But just want to prove TO my own salts
faction that you block-squatters are up
on a kite when you think YOU know how to
lay prices against such fool propositions
as horse races. I've got theory that only
Omnipotence knows in advance what horse
is going to beat another horse. What are
you laying me that the favorite doesn I finish
last?'
How about so to ~ asked HINT
figured good deal longer than that, but
my book was rounded up and didn't feel
like Offering him a higher quotation unless
he buckcd for 1t.
Thousand to twenty-safe a bet as
any of en- the man said, and my sheet
writer recorded the bet down in one COR
ner of the page.
"The 3-to-5 favorite did finish a punk
last and the freak bet killed whatever prof.
| had made on the race The man with the
leftover didn't have any line on the favor
lite, and there wasn't anything especial the
matter with the horse, except that he just
didn't feel like running fast that afternoon.
1.-THE freak bettor's theory looked AS
sound to him as a boilermaker's chisel after
that race, and he came at me- again.
Now he said to me before the fourth
race, IN lay you the thousand that the bum
outsider wins this race.
-The outsider was a 3O-to-l shot on my
slate, but | wanted that thousand back,
and took the bet, one of the biggest that
were ever registered on my sheet $50 600 TO
$1,000.
al figured tha; no funny bettor could
get in right twice in a row. but, all the
same, my heart was beating hard-pedal
devils tattoo against my ribs at the finish
: of that race. The 3O-to-l shot that | stood
pretty nearly TO go out of business on hooked
1t up with the favorite at the top Of the
stretch, and then it gas just nod and nod
between them right down TO the wire. The
favoYite just did stick his tongue out and
win on the post, but | was some lottery as
I climbed down from my stool, and didn't
take long breath until the favorite s
number was hung out.
al had another one of these run-last bets
at Morris Park in May. A disguised owner
who was selling out his stable of dogs had
one of them in race. and at post time he
amhled up to my stool and said to me:
Bet you ffrymy crab runs rotte n last
THAT'S good safe end of it you re
taking said to him, but, being as how
I'm gay dog Of a gambler. I'll lay you a
hundred TO your fifty that your mutt beats
at least one other Shetland in the sprint
at looked good enough to me that way
too His horse was the rank outsider in the
betting, but they don't always runto chalk
maybe you've heard that said somewhere
enough thing that the skate would trot
in ahead of at least one of the other horses
for they were all n cavalry lot of madens,
"This freak bet wound up in "A crouch
The owners dog did finish last of all of the
horses that actually ran, but there was one
of them left at the post The owner. of
course, declared that he had beaten me ont
but | couldn't see it, since the horse that
was left at the post was actually the last
of the NUTS to finish.
But the owner of the plug stormed
when offered to turn the kick over to the
ring arbitrator, my bet was that my horse
would run last. He did run last. The one
that was left at the post didn't run at all
he only logged back to the stand after
being left
But the one that was left was in the
starters hands and that let's me out
told him. It's the same for you as if you'd
been betting on the favorite and the ia
vorite had been left AT the post
"The head of the rings Kick Bureau
decided that ] had the correct end of it,
and the owner of the plug has been going
around ever since telling people that I'm
a shine and tin-tag piker.
"Down in Washington this spring | had
another one of these freak bets with chaw
for an aftermath. A Washington man
with a small stable of bush skates had n
terrapin in a field of tlIree-year-Old maidens,
thirteen of them, and he made his little
spooch to me just before the plugs lined
up at the barrier.
" Il don't think my horse can win said
he to me, but I'll bet you two hundred
to thousand that he'll beat more horses
than'll beat him
You're aboard said |.
"His horse was pretty bad, and I had
clairvoyant's picture of him doing his
great tail-ender stunt. But the mutt
didn't wind up in the ruck He finished
seventh in the field of thirteen That
made 1t six horses in front of him and six
behind him, and won the bet
! You're easy wlcres the dOugh?' said
the owner of the horse after the race.
Think II over-your horse finished
seventh | told him, just frame up a
personally-conducted cogitae on that fact
for about eight seconds
| 'IonLs 81 hare he said to me- nv bet