Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-11-26
TRICKS OF THE TRACKS

trainer at Benning "The boys who take
the phony end of the horse game are not
as crafty as they used to be. and the judges
and stewards are q lot more on the rubber
They shoot IT into the jocks with the San
dow arms, and the sand-bagging owners
and the gum-shoe jocks Wallets are almost
a thing of the past. Why. the stewards.
nowadays, even manage to spring every
ringer gag that's tried! When the boys
can't any longer shove ringer through on
-of-the-season track, then 1t begins to
look as If the games becoming whole lot
virtuous.
with your near-sighted old maid aunt. The
smooth ones of the old days spent all their
days and nights thinking up new ones, and
there was ingenuity in their stunts.
"A foxy scheme for getting long price
was rugged up at the old Clifton track by a
shifty-eye who tossed in his little white
bunk for long nights trying to chart out
new methods. He had five-furlonger that
was SO good that he couldn't be kept from
winning his races by anything short of
an ak.
ION several occasions, when an approved
jock with swelled hceps was up with IN
structions to saw the horses mouth off,
the bookies who had been made wise by
the owner in consideration of his bit to
come when the horse lost, had laid good
prices against the skate, only to have huge
pay-off lines when the earnest Old dog re-
fused to be snatched and made spread-eagle
finishes. So the bookies concluded that they
were being double-crossed by the owner of
the horse. got sore on him and began to lay
about / to 20 against the horse every time
he went to the post.
There wasn't any duff in that price for
the owner, and so he had to frame up one
that would enable him to get a price
against his horse and then send the plug
after a big yank-down.
ION his way from the track to town one
night he bought quart Of his favorite
whisky at a wholesale liquor place. This
bottle was wrapped up in one of those
pieces of hard corrugated pasteboard that
were just beginning to be used then to dis
guiSe the outside looks of a wrapped quart
bottle Of booze.
1.-THE owner of the horse with the win
ming habit got to looking at this piece of
corrugated pasteboard when he unwrapped
his quart bottle, and 1t solved the difficulty
for him. When the horse appeared on the
track for his preliminary on the next after
noon-he was top weight in the third race,
handicap-his nigh foreleg was swathed in
big, bulgy red bandage, and that leg was
limping badly. The owner had wrapped the
piece of corrugated pasteboard around the
horses leg and covered it up with the red
bandage. The pain of it pressing so tight
pasteboard hurt him. but there was no
chance that 1t could injure him. The horse
hobbled around the track at hand jog,
and he could just barely make his way into
the paddock to be finally saddled for the
race. The bookmakers let out happy
screech, and penciled 20 to 1 against the
animal, whereas If the horse hadn't shown
up on the track with that bad limp they'd
have slated him a prohibitive favorite at
about to 10.
1.-THE foxiness of the owner didn't end
with the providing Of that preliminary limp.
He had on the grounds lot of grafters of
his staff. all of them fixed out in Reub
make-ups These got the money down at
the track and gobs of 1t went down. too,
The bookmakers at the track, who had seen
the condition of the horse, accepted the
money Of the cheerful workers In the Zeke
toys as so much plush.
1.-THE honest old sprinter, relieved of his
pasteboard bandage, pranced on the track
when the bugle sounded as if he had never
taken lame step from the day he was
foaled. and he trudged home on creased
skidts. with his boy just riding side-saddle
and looking back and kidding all through
the stretch.
"A thing that was worked at the old
Alexander Island track over the Potomac,
was the isinglass blinker scheme. A new
horse coming along to the track. with no
recent dope on his performances, would be
worked before a race in blinkers, with
pieces of smoky isinglass set in the eye
holes. Now q race horse wants to see
what he is doing and where he is going,
and when an animal rugged out with these
and found that his vision was so obscured
that the path in front of him was all but
dark he'd begin to back up and buck-jump
and swerve and cut up bronco tricks cal
culated to convince the wisdom packers of
his rankneSs and all-around unfitness for
a race. Such a conviction on the part Of
the wise ones would boost the horses price
away up, and then the plug would hop out,
fitted with a pair of regular blinkers or
none at all, and towrope his field. Two or
three horses fitted with the isinglass blink
ers took the infiiction so much to heart
during their warm-ups that they stood on
their heads and then rolled on their exer-
else boys Boys couldn't be got to warm
up horses that wore the things. and that
put the scheme on the blut.
But for all the shrewdness of the own
ers and trainers on the old outlaw tracks,
they were occasionally backcapped by the
party of the second part-the fellows who
made 1t their business to become wise to
everything that was doing for the pur-
pose Of waiting the coin In their own d.
rection. These fellows wouldn't stop at
anything short Of piece of gas pipe wrap
ped up In a newspaper to turn the tables
when they got on to the scent.
During a meeting at Iron Hill there was
a valet for crooked jockey who was about
the busiest man at the track. He was the
legs between the betting ring and the pad
dock, and nothing got away from him. His
nickname was Something Doing, because
every time a real raw thing went through
it was observed that the valet invariably
pulled down his bit. One day a stable hand
who was sore for some reason or other on
Something Doing overheard the valet and
the crooked jockey doing some talking in
a stall.
off you're to come home in front the
valet said to the jock, I'll be down at the
rail by the judges stand as you parade to
the post. If the duff can't be got down at
the right price, and you're to snatch, 1
won't be at the rail, that's ALL
1.-The sore stable hand, who overheard this.
took 1t right off to some people that he
knew and when the betting opened on the
race the valet was logged by as determined
bunch of low foreheadS as ever looked for
the best of 1t. They formed Gordon around
him and around every man in the ring that.
he talked with By post time they knew
that the horse to be ridden by the crooked
jock was meant to win from the betting
operations set in motion by the valet. When
they became convinced of this the fellows
comprising the Gordon sent their thou
sands into the ring on the second choice. q
horse that figured to overwhelm everything
in the race except the one to be ridden by
the dishonest jockey.
when the trumpet sounded and the valet
started to hustle from the betting ring for
his position on the rail as to Indicate to
the jockey that the Jockeys horse was to
win. he was suddenly hemmed In by eight
or ten fellows making up the Gordon, and
shuffied to a far corner of the betting ring
He resisted f1ercely but he wasn't in
position to make any shrek to the track
police or to anybody else.
The gang surrounded him and kept him
in corner jollying him good naturally so
as to make the thing look all right to those