The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-10
POOLROOMS PAY ON A LOSER.
WIRETAPPERS CLEAN UP MORE
THAN $4,000 ON FENIAN.
Reports From New Orleans Indicated That
Outsider Won Fourth Race Instead OF
the FavorIte, First Premium Bets Paid
on Before Mistake Was Discovered.

WlretapperS worked tne OreaUor Now
York poolrooms for a big Doodle over the
fourth race at the New Orleans Fair Grounds
yesterday, or else by an unusual mistake
the rooms paid of on the wrong horse, and
they will have to pay again to-day to the
hackers Of the winner. The hackers OF
the winner have lost nothing, but the rooms
will in most cases be utterly deficient for
evermore Of the money they have paid out
in error. The mixup has put a crimp in
the bankrolls of the books to the tune OF
from $50, 900 to 100000
The ~favorite in the fourth race was First
Premium, which opened at 10 to 10 in the
betting and closed at 7 to 10. The big
bettors who send in their wagers by COM
missioners or by telephone orders were
all down on First Premium, hook, line and
sinker, and by all the calculations of past
racing form and the private information
this Premium seemed to be due as a cash
dividend. Meantime there had been a
dribblng play for small money on another
horse In the race. called Fenian. The bet
ting against Fenian opened in the city pool
rooms at ~ to 1 and under the pressure of
the steady backing the odds fell to 8 to at
the start. The disturbance was a purely
local one, to quote the weather reports, for
at the track there was very little play on
Fenian, which opened at sevens and closed
at skies. The latter fact is one Of the straws
to indicate overlapping, for when such a
coup is pulled of the pushes is lone on
as long a range as possible from the place
where the race is rum.
They're or!' came in due course over the
telephone, and the books closed down TO
await the result. In some Of the rooms
conducted as private clubs the races are
called off az they are being run, in the time
honored way, and in such places the an
nouncer had Fenian running second at
the quarter, the half, the three. quarters
and into the stretch, for the race wa at
seven ftlrlongs.
"rhe favorite is closing up!" cried one
announcer, and next, almost in the same
breath, he gave the final call, "Fenian
winsl"
simultaneously the verdict sounded On
the ears of the hackers in every room and
as simultaneously there were some hearty
yells from Irish threats, the owners having
backed the name through sympathy. But
this was not the play that was to crimr
the hank rolls. 1.-Two minutes later the
rooms received the official confirmation
that Fenian had won. Lady Henrietta
second and Gold Enamel third, tiiue, 1:272-5.
The rooms began paying of and to book
bets on the fifth race. There was no sus-
picion that any mistake had been made
until the rooms were abou to close up for
the day and the proprietors were beginning
to puzzle over what to order for dinner and
whether to round out the night at the theatre
or the big billiard match. Their worries as
to whether to begin with a clear soup or a
and what to follow up with were cut
off as suddenly as by a bolt from the blue.
Il was Just getting into mt evening
said n roomkeeper, in tones OF
deep injury last night, when a guy calls
me on the phone to say that First Premium
an not Fenian, had won the fourth race,
an that he'd thank pe for a check.
Wouldn't that jar you? An l began to get
the same sort of razzle from all over town
on the same minute
1t appears that a heavy bettor, over a
private wire he receives each evening from
a tout at the track, discovered the
from the track did not chime with
the ticker placing. A rush telegram to
New Orleans ELECTED the information that
Premium and not Fenian had won.
The bettor told his friends, and as wildfre
on a brittle dry prairie the news
was all over the city in a flash.
There are many reasons at this time
why the betting clubs and private rooms
should prefer the modest, shrinking vio-
let way of doing business rather than
flaunt abroad their doings as boldly "a a
sunfiower faces the orb Of day. As a con-
the roomkeepers did not have
to cay about the occurrence last
night, but wherever sporting men most
do congregate there were gloomy brows
over shining diamonds, and it is
to be feared that some digestions we're
spoiled. The tally of the sheets revealed
that there had been a falling in Of good
sized bets on Fenian In all the rooms,
as we'll as of the pikng bets Of the long
shot ohasers. Two rooms on one city block
were hit between them for 81 900, and the
comparing of notes revealed a play as
shrewdly managed in every city room.
Incidentally, the news came out in talking
over the muddle that the poolrooms do not
any longer receive any race news from the
telegraph companies. Instead they
contract for information with an individual
who has his headquarters in New Jersey
the use Of a direct wire to New Orleans.
He sends the news to the poolrooms through
distributing agencies, using both
The telegraph and telephone, and, after the
minute interval, this agent sends out
The confirmation on which bets are paid.
The mixup over the race did not originate
with him, as is evident by the fact hat he
,ent out a confirmation of the Jews later
,s he had received it.
According to skilled te~legraphers the
Key sounds of First Premium and Fenian
ire so utterly different that a mistake in
one name for the other could not
been made by even a kindergarten
The experts of this class are
inclined in favor Of a overlapping
scheme having been successfully carried
cut. But whether a scheme or an accident
The poolrooms to pay of on Fenian yes
terday will now have to settle up over
Premium in the same race to-day.