The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-03-01
RACING MAXIMS THAT FAIL.
A TCRFHAN on SOME or THE
SAYINGS or THE TRACK.
&phortsns a. TO the Running Of Horses
aud the Fortune Of the Betting Wen
Not sustained by the Fscts-Wome''
Not Hard Losers-value OF systems.

Not SuNhIncu Dy Tue EbV's V"''''
Not Hard Losers-vaiue OF systems
PAY no attention TO horse-racing maxims
n you're any idea Of following the game,
advised q veteran turfman the other day
-Raoetraok maxims don't go.
"a first -olass horse can run on any KIND
OF track Is one Of them. That's dream
Some Of the greatest horses in the history
OF the American turf couldn't walk In the
mud, much less run in 1t.
limp came pretty close to being as great
a racehorse as ever stood on iron IN 'his
country. She could set fast track on
fire. But she foundered around In the
mud like a tumble bug turned on It's pacK'
Il call Advance Guard a great horse-as
great a long distance runner a. Ben Hoiia-
dsy. which Is saying lot. But Advances
Guard cam bsat a II eam-rolle n the mud.
You're not going to find much grander
colt than Hamburg in search oil our rae
ing annals, and you'll recall the smothering
that Bowling Brook gave him in the
Norris Park mud
Never play steeplechase races they re
all fixed, is another one OF these Poverty
Dick phonies OF the tracks. Dig up the
figures and you'll find that in recent years
n larger percentage Of favorites in steeple-
rllaSe races nave Won tiuIi idNDi'N'e "" Wv
fat. The maxim maker pretends TO know
that no heavy bettor ever wagers his money
on a steeplechase race. Ask the book
makers about that. They will tell you
that there's certain class of plungers
who never play anything else but the races
over the jumps. They will also inform
YOU that these fellows usually get the
money sTo,, can't h.,, the ponies with a two.
dollar note, is another OF the aphorsms
OF the wisdom packers. That's another
trance. | wat ched a red-headed st. Louis
wharf rat run a forty-cent craps winning
Nd to $4,000 inside of ten days. II the
maxim makers want modern instances,
there's that City Hall bootblack who got
into the Aqueduct bookies to the tune OF
$4,000 a couple Of springs ago. beginning
with a case note.
Whitley Langdon had something like
two bones when he set his little campaign
a-going year or SO ago, and If he hasn't
got 500 900 this afternoon. he hasn't got
the price Of a brush of. Joe Yeager, who
only recently bested the Hot Springs pool
rooms to the tune OF Si5O,0O0 on a few days
play, had nothing but his health and good
strong pair Of galluses as remember him
only few years ago
There was an cx-waiter making book on
the deadline on the New York tracks last
season who shoofycd a dollars worth of
dimes that he got "a tips into $4,000 at the
Morris Park spring meeting last year.
chorus girl who started in by venturing
half dollars with a chum of the same com
pany on Tommy Burns's mounts last spring
concluded 10 quit and bank her winnings
at the wind-up Of Saratoga. and she tucked
away $4,000 that know Of
This sort of thing isn't happening every
day, Of course, and for every racegoer who
gets away with IL there are ten thousand WHO
get bumped; but it has happened and is still
happening often enough TO drive spike
into the track maxim tnat the ponies can
be beat with a two-dolar note.
'fhere never was a system yet that
could beat en- is one more Of the croaks
that have been repeated 30 often as to be
finally framed up into track naxims. That's
still another hasheesh fantasy. There are a
dozen perfectly practicable systems OF
beating them. and not merely on paper,
either. And there are thousands Of fellows
who are playing these systems and beating
them every year.
But these fellows have got something
else in their heads besides mayonnaise
dressing. The systems are all right, but
twenty-four OFT Of every twenty-five chaps
who play the systems are all wrong. They
Any old system is all right If it's adhered
to ana played consistently. The fellow
who starts in 70 win $40 a day on a system
is liable 10 become hog for money II he
finds that his slO-a-day - SION WORKS all
right for a couple Of weeks running, and
then he starts in TO win 500 a day on the
same amount Of capital as he got together
to inaugurate the $l0-a-day win. and. of
course. he gets on the crags. Systems are
all right, but they re not meant TO be PLAYED
by men with pear shaped heads.
The booknaker can't lose il he sticks
to his percentage and doesn't play 'em
himself is another OF those ambient eddies
that you'll often hear from the hot-air
bunch. Well, I'd like TO have one cute
Yokohama yen for every layer that I've
seen chased Of the block during the past
generation while trying TO fix up round
books and never 40 much as dreaming of
betting on the horses.
Another OF the idiotic turf maxims is
that the beginner at the game always
wins at first He does not-not one-half
~ per cent. Of him. Beginners are people
who become interested in the game from
attending the races on DAYS when big events
are run, like the Brooklyn or the Suburban.
About 90 per cent. Of holiday visitors az
racetracks generally return home broke,
or nearly broke.
Occasionally a man who never visited
racetrack before in his life will fancy
the name OF a long shot and beat il purely
by accident. and that's the way this maxim
about the luck Of beginners on tho turf got
going But the great majority OF people
making their initial visits at race'racks
get swatted such whole plenty AZ the
outset that they make up their minds on
the ride in that they'll never risk another
dollar on horse race NJ long as they live
ard breathe.
AN women are hard losers ia another
one Of those patSounding things. but II
N no more true than that all men are Mag
yars. There are women visitors AT race
tracks, OF course, who will scTeech or else
dab AZ the col n Tt Of their eyes withwadded
handkerchiefs when they lose a dollar on
a $50 TO shot, but these are the exception
you WI ii the women coming home
from the tracks. those whose husbands
have lost say, and compare their conduct
and manner with that Of their spouses
The men, As a rule have n Crouch that
couldn't he den ted with hattie axe. and
spend their time gnawing their nails and
biting their mustaches and talking about
the stewards being IN on deal to shred The
public. while their womeufolk are laughing
snd chsttering and trying TO cheer them
up,
Because u IN their husbands, and not
themselves, who have lost. you saw Yes.
but In such cases u h the women who have