Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-14
GETTING RICH QUICK"

"These turf investment outfits will be do
ing business again, and slews and slathers
of it, inside of six months" said turf
philosopher, who is preparing string out
at the Benning track. 1.-THE people who
bite on such bait as the turf syndicates
offer soon forget. And them. too, inside OF
the next few months, there will be num-
Der Of big racing coups on various tracks
around the country, and these will be writ
ten and talked about enormously, thus
bringing new money into the game. The
killings on the race tracks capture the
imagination of people who don't know any
thing about race horses. When they read
Of John Drake pulling down nearly 100000
on his Savable, or Dave Gideon, slaughter
ing the ring for more than $20O.OOO on MS
unknown Josepha, or obscure owners gath
ering in great sums on still more obscure
horses, their minds become fnf1amed with
contemplating what they think are the
possibilities of game of which they know
nothing, and thus they drift into 1t. They
don't know-how can they know?-that 1t
is only the successful racing coups that are
written about-those that fail are rarely
even referred to, except in terms of disgust
by the men who have fzzled out in at
tempting to put them through. A few days
ago, for fnstance-on Tuesday-there was
huge killing in California on an unknown
horse named Forest King. The people be-
hind the horse battered his price down from
100 to 1 to less than 10 to l, and the horse
won in a romp. WE'LL thousands OF folks
all over the country have read about this
killing by this time, and, hoop-la! you can
wager that 1t looks so easy to a large pro-
portion of them that they'll suffer yet from
having read the account Of that race. You
hear about the successful men, but how
much do you hear about the failures? It
is the same with the racing coups. Those
that win out get the stories. but those that
don't go through are strangled.
ITO Illustrate: Six years ago, at the La
tonia track, there was killing all blocked
out that would have chased the price lay
ers all over America to the foolish houses
in sets of tours if-just If.
''The horse happened to belong to me,
which renders the recital of the cause I'M
derlying the If all the more sad. He was
such a good horse that he's been in the
stud for number of years now, and has
sent winners to the races at Benning.
Il never raced this horse at all as a
two-year-old He went bit wrong as
was fitting him for the post as two-year-
old, and SO l turned him olt and waited
for him to come to hand IS three-year-
old. I didn't really know then whether he
was going to be of any account or not, but
when I got him into racing shape on the
old Lexington track the stuff he showed
me made me sit Up and rub my eyes. l
just dubbed within over the prospect OF
killing that would make the ring look like
an abattoir
zone thing only bothered me, and that
was the extreme nervousness of the young
fellow. He was as jumpy and 1erky as q
yellow pup In flea. time, and piece OF
paper flying across the training track or
bit Of unusual noise behind him in his barn
would make him hop around for half an
hour like ball of mercury with the st.
vitus dance. 1 tried to cure him Of that in
all sorts Of ways, including thorough
schooling at the barrier, but it was born
in him. and he just couldn't help It. de-
cided to put the killing through anyhow.
figuring 1t out that If his natural nervous
ness caused him to get poor start for his
first actual race his great speed would
carry him to the front at the wire not
withstanding.
st took the horse up to Latonia a week
before I calculated on making him fetch
me the bale of money home, and when the
day came around he was as fine as Strad
fiddle. I tossed him into six-furlong
sprint that had fourteen other starters.
number of them being the real good ones
among the Cincinnati sprinters. and it
looked like a sure-enough shoo-in for my
horse.
II had put about half a dozen Of the
moneyed boys wise to the thing, and our
money at the hour the race was due was
down in a whole lot of different sections
Of the United States. The books opened
up my unknown at 100 to 1. and we chewed
that so hard that two minutes after the
states went up my horses price was down
to Is to 1, and the books were. leary OF
taking much Of that. By that time, how,
ever we were into them for a figure that
hate to name, because it makes me lone
some to think about 1t.
"Well. they got away on line my horse
up with the rest, and the boy with tight
rein on him, according to instructions, until
the stretch was reached. when he was to
cut loose and fetch the horse home on the
chin-strapsky. 1t wac happening just that
way when five Of the horses swung into the
street CHI in a row.
Uo on fha rail and the fOck
was just beginning to let out the Inks
when six Internal darkies suddenly rose
out of the tall, rank grass alongside the in
field fence and simultaneously let out a sue
cess1on of blasts from six long tin fish horns
that must have been heard down in Ala
bama My horse jumped about nine feet
in the air and then swerved heavily onto
the horse next to him.
Then it was a case OF all the horses In
that first division banging against each
other, until 1t looked as il several Of them
would have to go down. AS 1t was. all OF
the front horses were thrown OF their
himself, and he came on and won like
scared rabbit
HE was disqualified, of course for foul
ing. The books had shifted the rodent when
all OF that good money went In on my horse.
and hard loser among them had chartered
the six darldes to mess up the race with
the fish horns. The bookmaker stood to pay
out $4,000 II my horse won, and he felt
pretty confident that the only thing for
him to do was to make that sneaky play for
disqualification. He got away with 1t. and
the next time my good horse went to the
post he was to shot. That's how close
1 came to being a pork butcher, pulling OF
a historical hog slaughtering, without ac-
tually getting the apron on. And that was
one Of the big killings that was never heard
about, because he didn't happen to get
through"