Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-08
RAN FOR FOUR MILES
After ALI That the Mare Won
Her Race.
JUST COULDN'T LOSE
BREEZY YARN OF A TRAINER OUT
AT BENNING.
How It Came About That He Got All
the Winnings-Bookies
Hit Hard.
JUST COULDN'T LOSE
Written for The Evening Star.

|
While the maiden colt Mineral Boy. after
| having taken the bit in his teeth on the
parade to the post, was executing his de-
| termined four-mile runaway at the Ben
ming track one day last week. a knot of
| seasoned trainers stood watching the crazy
| animals performance from little knoll
in the infield.
Ever see one of EN- win after running
! away four mles?' inquired the veteran
of the group
None of them had actually seen such
thing. but they'd heard of some such
| feat having been accomplished once by a
| mare on some western track.
And the lady must have had enough hop
| In her to float a battleship to do that
| thing, says t. added one of the trainers.
| Behave" said the veteran. IF you'll
| give yourselves minute to think 1t over
you'll remember that she my mare
| They all did recall that fact upon less
| than moments reflection. and they all
| laughed.
| II took that mare" said the veteran be
| fore she ever got piece Of the one-two-
| three papers. and she was the hardest thing
! to train that l ever saddled. Big a
| Clydesdale stallion. almost, and gross and
| rank, and eater that scarcely ever
stopped eating even to sleep; crazy as an
arc light bug. too, for all her bigness and
grossness, and nervous at the post
dog-treed cat.
Always in Trouble.
Two or three times after I'd walloped
| her into racing shape at Latonia she'd
| busted through the barrier and got her rid
ers set down and fined and then wound up
| by being turned the wrong way and getting
| left at the post One day when | thought
| had her in pretty good she smashed
| through the webbing three times, and
| every time she ran three-quarters of mile
| before the boy could grab her.
| They suspected that 1 had the tea in
| her that time, but the mare really never
| knew the taste of the hurry-up medicine
| nor the prick of the run-quick needle. She
| was just a big, nervous hussy, that's all.
| willing as an Eskimo draught dog, but
| without sense enough to do the right thing
| at the right time.
| She took a lot out of me paying fines
| for the boys who got the $50 and 500
| wallops from the starter for fZgigging
| through the barrier, but she taught me
something in those runaways of hers.
was always at the post when she started
| and 1 noticed on the day that she had run
away three times and gone over two miles
| in those false stabs-she got left flat
| footed after all that noticed, say, that
when she came back into line after all of
| that top-speed squirting she wasn't breath
| ing hard enough to disturb a spider web
! and / made up my mind that the rip, II
| she ever succeeded in getting away without
DelUS ali tdISItu up anu poNheAtu
| slapped on the fence and jumped on gen.
| orally would be able to run all day without
| ever knowing that she had been to the
| races.
! .Ihad her privately schooled at the barrier
| after that and one day | had her in mile
and a quarter scramble for maidens. She
| looked like bet to me. But I had had
| all kinds of bad season, and l wasn't
| there with the betting coin.
| Up Against 1t.
| ct lust had enough in my dungarees to
| get by with the feed bill in Cincinnati and
| to ship my string of eight head down to
| winter quarters in Tennessee after the
| Latonia wind-up. and so l couldn't take a
chance even on such a good thing my
mare looked to me for that race
| so, on the night before the race, 1 got
| hold of a German hotel keeper in Cincin-
| natl a man with whom 1 was on terms.
| having eaten at his place lot while in
Cincinnati. and l told him what had. He
was one of these wise, fat fish, and when [
| mentioned the fact that it was my hard
luck mare he staked me to the cultural
gurgle.
! MAYBE I am crazy alretty. amt i'd?
| was his crack at me the minute L handed
| my nice thing to him. Dot mare couldn't
| peat mine leetle Augoost from one end of an
alley to the odder. Don'd tell me such blay-
| full dings. Maybe you are only Smoking,
| YAH? and he looked me over to see whether
| 1 was kidding him or not.
HE saw that l wasn't but that | was
| dead in ca rnest. After about an hours ses-
| sion 1 convinced him that there was more
| than a chance Tor my dippy mare to con-
meet.
IT told him how she had been schooled on
| the quiet so that she didn't any longer
regard the barrier with suspicion, and 1
| mentioned the fact that even If she did
| happen to run away a little piece on the
| following day she was such powerful
| baggage that the runaway would only be a
warm-up for her.
All Three Ways.
"1 want you to bet $500 on her across
the tape, all three ways wound up, half
of the same being my cut for letting you
inland you're the only that's in.
She'll be good as so to 1, and maybe
better Take her right down the line. with
the biggest piece. $500 say, on to win, and
when she makes the rest of the barnacles
in the race look as if they'd already been
made into glue and motormen's gloves.
you'll be the cheerfulest square-head this
side of Frankfort-on-theM Main, or I'm
Heinie myself
well, the books opened my mare up at
CO. 20 and TO- and when my German hotel
keeper angel saw that figure he clomped all
over the feet Of everybody in the Latonia
betting ring to get the cash down. Two or
three fellows that he stepped on handed
him swift swats in their soreness, but he
was too busy to notice that he had been
hit at all.
when he was all through digging his
elbows into people in the ring, and had
got his $500 down, my mares price was 10,
6 and 8, and he had done all of the bat
tering to screw 1t down three-quarters from
the opening figures. He had got an average
of 40 Is and for his dust, and we stood to
win about $4,000. or 81 800 for each. if the
mare should act like a real re-enough
lady long enough to show vat speed she
actually possessed.
'She was carrying lis pounds in the race
and that enabled me to put on her
jockey with a pair of arms on him like
whittled-down piano movers. When gave
him the leg up told him to pull all of her
teeth out with the bit IL he caught her
trying to get her molars down on the steel
for runaway, and he told me that he'd
hold her If there was any such thing as
holding her.
Too Good to Be True
well, the bag did me proud the way
she acted in the paddock that day before
the race She was quiet as a Quakeress
at meeting when she had always. up to
that time. been as bughouse at saddling
time as a Swede sailor with leftover
souse, and she had tight, squeenchy look
in her eye that looked all business to me-
81 knew how she could go IL nothing
1