Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-14
DoIefuI but Interesting Expert
ence of a Veteran Trainer,
Who Is Wintering His
String at the Ben
ming Track.

| name for a number of years past, has been
| the occasion of considerable comment dur
| ing her racing career owing to her frequent
! quarreis with the excellent trainers she has
| employed. She has never retained the serv-
1 ices of any one trainer for period longer
| than few months, although some of the
! shrewdest trainers In the business have at
one time or another had the placing of her
| colors. Only couple of weeks ago her
! sudden cancellation of contract which she
| had with a noted trainer who had been
handling her good string at the Ascot Park
| track in Los Angeles attracted considerable
| attention in the turf world The former
dressmaker's horses had been doing SPLEEN
\ didly in. the hands of this trainer, one or
other of the horses winning a race or get
| ting into the money nearly every racing
| day. when, of sudden, the announcement
was made that the woman with the good
! string had summarily dismissed her trainer,
| and the usual speculation as to the under
| lying reasons began. Turfmen are calling
| attention to the fact, a vindic ton of
| the dismissed. trainer, that the woman's
| horses have not won race at the Los An
| geles track since the trainer was sent his
| way.
| Doleful Tales of Trainer.
Il don't know anything about the exact
reason why that trainer was rolled over the
| SkluS, observed Il veteran trainer WHO Is
wintering a string at the Benning track,
! but I'd come pretty nigh laying good
as to 1 that the man wasn't to blame.
| I'm willing to give the women all the best
| of 1t in nine cases out of ten as to the JUS
| tice of their cases in all kinds of nix-ups
| they might have with men acting parties
| of the second part but you've got to show
| me where any woman owner of race horses
| ever yet acted like a reasonable human be-
| ing. l ought to know, for I've trained run
| ners for as many as half dozen different
| women since l first got tangled up with the
| old game, and that's one of the reasons
| why l expect to cash in about ten years
! earlier than my predestined minute.
| You see, the average woman owners idea
| of race horse is one that'll cop every
| time he goes to the post. Down in the
| hearts of them all of the women owners
| ever trained for believed that l ought to
| be. driving a milk wagon instead of four
| flushing around trying to train race horses
| and I've yet to meet the trainer who hasn't
| gained the like mental encomiums from the
| women owners for whom he worked.
Il once took a horse to train for a Gin
| clnnau woman. She ran a cafe in Cncin-
| natl. The former owner of the horse had
| borrowed some money of her. He went
! broke and did the Dutch act-that is, he
| shot himself. That's the way she got the
| horse.
| He was a pretty good overnight handi-
| cap horse and had won some stakes down
| the southern line. But he was slow horse
when | got him, at the beginning of the
Cincinnati racing season, he was gross,
unworked and unfit-not within weeks of a
race.
But that woman insisted upon my tossing
the gross horse into a race after only one
weeks hurried preparation. In the race he
ran like a fire dog for quarter of mile,
and then shut up like a country hotel fold
ing bed. AT her peremptory order l sent
the horse out three more times inside of a
week. Each time the horse finished a dead
| last. Then she consented to my putting
| him through a bruising preparation before
starting him again.
Even then, at the end of a month, being,
! as l say, q horse that needed lot of &C
| tual racing to get him right, he wasn't any
where near his edge, but, TO satisfy her, L
did start him again. He ran a fair second
beaten by a horse that he could run bow
knots around when he was really cherry
| ripe. Three days later she insisted upon
running him once more, and again he fin
| ished second to the same horse.
I'D like to own that horse that has
beaten my horse twice, my woman en-
| ployer said to me then, not without heap
! of petulance. II wish you'd ask that horse
owner if he'll trade with mbe.'
Il had to fatty refuse to do that
" Your horse 1 said to her. IS easily a
| $4,000 horse, with all kinds of stake
| streaks in him, and that horse that you
| want because he has beaten your horse
/ twice is an $500 selling platter. The next
| time they meet, If you let me take a little
| more time with your horse, he'll make that
| skate that's beaten him twice look like a
! barnyard hen
We'll, she exhibited her confidence in my
! Judgment by seeing the owner of the other
| horse herself about half an hour later, and
making the trade with him. The owner OF
| the other horse jumped at her offer. He
| afterward told me that he'd have given her
| about 50 600 to boot if she'd asked him.
| Then she told me about her little deal,
| and said that the skate for which she had
traded the good one would be sent over to
nv t-qi int her l har
| l thought not, and We arrived at the two
| fingered pike post right there. She had to
! get a new boy for trainer. was through.
| "a couple of days later the two horses
met again. The nice horse that I had
| dubbed into condition, only to see her trade
| him for a ground hog, beat her trade by
| the length of an iron ore freight train. and
| then he won nine straight races, carrying
| up to 1872 pounds, and going from seven
| iurlongs TO a mile and half
! And ever since, of course. that Cincin-
natl woman has been waking up in the mid
| die of the night just TO hate me.
Experience With a Man-Eater
| Eight years ago. at St. Louis, a woman
| who owned n man-eater sent him over to
| my shed to be fixed UP for a race This
| horse could run a lot, but he was a born
| sc rehead. and dangerous. He liked to bite
! off human arms. The woman had come
irto possession of the horse accidentally,
| and she didn't know any more about race
| horses than L do about the fourth dimen-
| sion. One thing she did know, however,
| and that was that on the day her man
| eater was TO be sent to the post for the
| first time IN her colors she was to have
| strips of old rose and green-the racing col
| or5 she had registered-twined in his name
! and spitlock.
Well, of course I told her that this
| would be a foolish job-that her horse was
| such a iesh-eater that he had even to be
| bridled by strategy on the part of his coon
| harder.
"'Better be content with Jockeys display
of your colors.' l told her. The horse has
got standing crouch against himself and
| the world, and that kind of horse doesn't
| stand TO have his front bangs and name
| frivoled with
But nix. She wanted the old rose and
green ribbons in his spit curl and neck
| hemp and that was all there was about it
so there! She had had a dress made with
old rose and green trimmings, and the man.
eater would have to wear bows in his hair
| to match her ribbons.
Dye know that We had to hoist that
! savage old gnawer in sling and almost
| choke him to death with timber bitches be-
| fore the coon boy succeeded in weaving
| those trifing ribbons In among his bangs
and name strands? The job made the horse
| so nervous and devilish that when we got
him. saddled, into the paddock, he was in