Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-25
HARD LUCK STORIES


There's certain owner. on these grounds
now. who at the moment when / caught .
fash at him the other afternoon could have
done the male posing for bas-relief Of
Grief all right" observed one Of the Benz
ming trainers
He's got royalIy-bred no-account horse
that he'd been trying to softsoap into win
ming race for him ever since the racing
season began this year. But the bred
in-the-purple four-fush had all OF his we'll
known sulkiness and roguishness with
him every time and wouldn't try HEX in
any of his races.
He'd work like q starnpeded bobcat IN
the morning hours. and then 60 out in the
afternoon to the races ana prick his ears.
and swish his tail and gaze dreamiiy at the
waving grass in the infield. looping along
like sand-weary desert camel four
days out from the last oasis, and finishing
away back with the rubbish every time.
On this day that I'm speaking OF the
rogue was scheduled to go little mile
thing. During the morning the horse looked
kind and unusually agreeable and docile to
the owner. who told his friends that he
wouldn't be surprised II the horse was to
get something that day
As the field paraded to the barrier tie
owner chased from the paddock into the
betting ring to get bet down on his four
flush When he got into the ring and started
to dig through his clothes for his bank roll
he couldn't find 1t.
1T took him some time, in the excite
ment, to recall that he had left his Yad in
another suit of clothes at the hotel. BY
the time this fact had trick1ed through his
mind the cut-ups of the field of horses were
hopping around at the barrier awaiting the
signal.
oh. we'll somebody heard the owner
mutterng to himself, III get a marker
and he hustled over to one OF the leading
bookies stools. The owner saw that his
horse was chalked up at 10 to 1 on this
bookmakers pad.
Hey, pal, the owner said to the book
maker, whom he knew well. I want hun
dred straight and a hundred place on that
one O. mine, and
They're offn baw1ed Jack Adler, the
ring announcer, just at that instant.
The bookmaker to whom the owner had
been talking stood UP on his stool to watch
the bunch fly around the first turn, and his
quick eye dIscerned that the, horse of the
owner who had just addressed him was out
in front Of the bunch and making play for
the rail.
Oh not today, old man. replied the
bookmaker to the owner, with battling
grin, do you want a hundred straight and
a hundred the plotz on that one of yours?
Not on my little sheet. leastways. seeing
as how your mutt Is away on his little tip
petoeR There he swings out In front on the
backstfetch leading by two cunnin' lengths!
Well. he's only tincanning home now with
all of the rest of 'em drunk proper behind
him, and
'Wow-eep bawled the crowd then. and
the hoarsely-shouted name Of the owners
horse rang through the grandstand and bet
ting ring like the below of a victorious
army as the horse swung down first past
the wire by open daylight
We'll. 1t was right then that that owner
looked like the one to do the swell posing
for the Grief bas-relief.
"But he wasn't the first of large aggre-
cation of sore owners I've met up with who.
for one reason or another, had failed to
get bets down on their whippets at the
psychological second.
cat Detroit, one year was booking out
there, / saw an owner of string of pigs
lose I don't know how many thousands Of
dollars just for the sake of a miserable lit
tie $50 or $40 customs duty money that he
saved on a fur coat that he struggled from
" indsor for his wife
"A maiden three-year-old that this owner
had In race that day had shown him such
a lot In the way of stiffness that he had
told his friends they could bet on him after
the prices had been up for about ten min
utes.
He meant naturally enough, to take the
cream of the price himself, and his friends
who were let in on the good thing were per-
fectly willing to let the owner have the top
betting figure.
"a couple of hours before he was due to
go to the track this owner got tip from
Windsor that q fur coat that had been pur-
chased for his account in Quebec was
awaiting him at Windsor, the dry-as-dust
little Canadian town across the Detroit
river. The owner decided that he'd have time
to hustle over to Windsor, snag the fur coat
and sneak it-irrto American territory with
out digging up for the duty on the coat.
while he was in Windsor getting the fur
coat and settling up the transaction. q
heavy fog came up on the Detroit river, and
the ferryboats had to slouch along through
- fn~xx -l,ZoA
which the owner took back to Detroit
reached the Michigan metropolis about
three-quarters of an hour before the first
race, the one in which his horse was to
GO was scheduled.
He hoped into a cab at the ferry and
bawled at the driver to make the track in
time for the first race and there'd be fifty
bucks init for him. and If he was pinched
for fast driving he, the owner, 'ud do the
settling for 1t with the magistrate.
1.-The cabman kept his plug at a dead
gallon the entire distance. When the cab
reached the track entrance the owner leaped
out and ran toward the gate like mad
man.
But, somehow or other, he had left his
owners badge at home, and OF course he
was held up at the entrance gate. He
him to take the price of a day badge out
of that, but the gatekeeper replied that he
wasn't allowed to do that.
80 the owner had to hustle for the badge
board He slapped down his IS for badge
and rushed away without his change.
He went through the surging mob In the
betting ring like an escaped smallpox pa
tiera at a county fair
+ Hey, hundred straight on that goat o.
minet he screeched at the first bookmaker
he came to in his wild scramble.
1.-THE bookmaker handed him the big wide
Otis Skinner lamp, and laughed.
THAT 'ud be real cute and cunnin' for
YOU. wouldn't i? said the bookmaker
Your goat came home about Ave minutes
ago. like hungry lumberjack in the north
woods knocking off for dinner, and the yam
nigans on your large staff knocked it down
from 100 to / to to 1 before the field
paraded to the stick. I'll be paying EN- off
myself until next Tuesday week. Say,
where do you do your pill cooking now
adays, anyhow?
(which was exactly how 1t had come off.
1.-THE owners friends, who had got the
tip from him on the maiden, had acted on
the level and waited for the books to have
the price up for a quarter of an hour be-
fore they took the figure against the maid
en-, and then, of course, they'd gone to 1t
like herd of hanky parks around a circus
ticket wagon. The side-stepping of little
piece of change In the way of customs duty
on the fur coat had cost that owner the
cleanup of his whole glad turf career, and