The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-03-28
TRICKS on OUTLAW TRACKS


"A gag that was worked at the old
Alexander island track was in the ism
glass blinker scheme said the old
horseman. "A new horse coming along
the track. with nos recent dope on his
performances, would be worked before
race in blinkers with pieces of smoky
isinglass in the eye-holes.
Now a race horse wants to see what
he is doing and where he is going, and
when an animal rugged out with those
lslnglass blinkers got out onto the track
and found that his vision was so OBJ
scured that the path in front of him
was all but dark he'd begin to buck.
jump and swerve and cut UP broncho
tricks calculated to convince the wis
dom-p packers of his rankness and all
around unftness for a race.
Such conviction on the part of the
wise ones would boost the horses price
away I'D, and then the animal would
hop out, fitted with a pair of regular
blinkers or none at aIl-everything went
at Alexander iSland-and toWrOpe his
field. Two or three horses fitted with
the isinglass bhnkers took the infliction
so much to heart during their warm
ups and they stood on their heads and
then rolled on their exercise boys. Boys
couldn't be got to warm horses up that
wore the things and that put the scheme
on the blut.
THE lead-shoe game. too, was often
worked at Alexander island. An AMI
NAL would be chucked into a race shod
with the leaden things that made him
run ike a land crab trying to sail
against typhOon, and on the next day
he would go to the post wearing a cute
little set of racing plates and run like
locoed maverick with~14 bull burrs
chnging to the under side of his tail
They don't use the lead shoes any
more, but right down to the present
time. and on the legitimate tracks
horses occasionally run doggy races While
wearing shoes only fit for CIydeSdalea
md then ont = like HindnnS
little later when they've got the racing
plates on-on the days that they're
meant
But, for all the shrewdness of the
owners and trainers of the outlaws, they
were occasionally back-capped by the
party of the second par-the fellows
who made it a business to get wise to
what was doing for the purpose of
waiting the coin in their own direction.
These fellows wouldn't stop at anything
short of a piece of gas pipe wrapped
in a newspaper to turn the tables when
they got on the scent.
During the last meeting at Old PIN
leo there was a valet for a crooked
jockey who was about the busiest man
at the tracks. He was the legs between
the ring and the paddock and nothing
got away from him.
His nickname was Something Doing
because every time a real raw one went
through it was observed that the valet
Invariably yanked down his bit and
grinned a heap while chewing on his
straw One day a stable hand who was
sore for some reason or other on Some
thing Doing overheard the valet and his
crooked employer, the jock, doing some
talking in a stall.
= If you're to come home in front .
the valet said to the jock. TIL be down
at the rail, by the judges stand, as you
go to the post. If the dough can't be
got down at the right price and you're
to snatch. won't be at the rail, that's
ALL
The sore stable hand who overheard
this took it right Off to some people
that he knew and when the betting oD-
ened on the race the valet was logged
by as determined bunch of low fore
heads as ever looked for the best of II.
They formed a Gordon around him and
around every man in the ring that he
talked to.
BY post time they knew that the
horse to be ridden by the crooked
ting operations set in motion by the
valet. When they became convinced of
this the fellows composed the Gordon
sent their thousands into the ring on
to soverwhelm everything in the race
except this one to be ridden by the
dishonest jockey.
when the trumpet sounded from the
stand and the valet started to hustle
from the betting ring to his position on
the rail so as to indicate to his en-
ploeyr that the horse was to win, he
was suddenly hemmed in by the eight
or ten fellows making up the Gordon
and hustled to a far corner of the bet
ting ring. He resisted fercely, but he
wasn't in a position to make any beef
to the track police or to anybody else
The gang surrounded him and kept
him in the corner, jollying and joshing
him good-naturedly so as to make the
thing look all right to those watching
it, until the horses had filed past the
stand and taken their places at the
post. Then, when it was too late for
the valet to make the rail and thus tip
the crooked jockey off they turned him
loose.
THE jockey snatched his mount, Of
course, and the second choice rolled
home on the bit. It was an old-fash-
toned case of dog eat dog, and there
were a whole lot Of cases just like it on
the turf not so many years ago.
I'm those days when the boys were
going after the kirtish with blackjacks
and sticking little silver loving knives
into each other on the slightest provo
cation, you could never know whether
you'd make a winning or not until you
had the threaded papers tucked
away il your kick. and I've seen some
uncommonly fine frame-ups go wrong
at the last minute on account of alb
sent-mindedness or carelessness on the
part of the manipulatOrs.
'One afternoon, at old Clifton. where
some of the cunnin'est doings in the