Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-02

the bunch Of sprightly. proud. arch-necked.
handsome glossy thoroughbreds comprising
tha Inaugural field 1t looked like a sin AMI
shame and a scandal for the old horses
people to run him at all, IL honestly did.
and right then and there a number of hu-
name people present declared that they had
a good mind to report DR.. Sheppards own
ers to the Society for the Prevention OF
looking, broken down. down-and-out-ap-
pearing old proposition as DR.. Sheppard to
go to the post.
He Was q Hypocrite.
The crafty old equine mooched along his
apparently painful way till the post was
reached. and while the rest OF the field
were kicking and slashing around at the
webbing he looked dismally over into the
infeld and stood as stock-still and az tired
looking at the barrier as any depressed
yaller dog awaiting his finish In the dog
catchers pen. But when the nag fell and
the barrier went up the sad-looking old
rogue gave his tail q couple OF contemp-
tuous swishes and the way he just went on
and hid from the rest OF those horses was
ridiculous to contemplate. He was pulled
to the conformation OF a pretsel to win by
ten lengths. and the people who were In
on the good thing cleaned up something
like 100000 in the Covington and Chicago
poolrooms. not a cent having been wagered
at the track by the inside group.
There were a lot of the regular cripple
players at the Benning track when old
Boney Boy came back to the races az
steeplechaser after long retirement down
on the farm of Pa Bradley, his owner, In
Virginia. Boney Boy, son OF Bitten. the
Iron horse" had more than done his share
a runner on the fiat. Bradley had cam
palgned the willing horse remorselessly for
years. winning many races witt. him. until
in Chicago one day Boney Boy broke down
so badly that 1t was feared cor time that
he would have to be destroyed. Nobody
who saw the willing brute go to pieces on
that occasion had the slightest notion that
Boney Boy could be saved. much less that
he would ever get back to the races again.
But he was pulled through and sent to the
old Bradley farm In Virginia
Bradley is owner who doesn't like to
feed idle stock no matter how much oats
Boney Boy over he decided that the horse
might stand training as jumper. Boney
Boy was put to ii again. and schooled over
the sticks. When he was brought up to
Washington and his name appeared among
the jumpers in a steeplechase race at
Benning one day. the Washington follow
ers of the game. with whom Boney Boy
had been a tremendous favorite years be-
fore, were dumfounded Few of them
knew that Boney Boy had even recovered
from his breaking down in Chicago. much
less that he had been schooled as timber
topper, but most of them went to him on
pure bunch and sentiment. taking the
ground that such dead-willing little horse
Boney Boy had been a fiat-runner
would be sure to make big try. anyhow.
at delivering the goods as jumper. They
had that right too, for Boney Boy won the
first time he was asked to hop the sticks
In a jumping race, and he beat SO good
leaper as Inrperialist at that work. too. The
cripple players made a tremendous clean
up that time and they. with practically all
of the horse bettors of the state of Vir=
ginia, repeated the whackirS of the book
makers a few days later when the ever
willing Boney Boy won another rafting
steeplechase at good price and from
swell field
Followers of the game here will easily re-
call the extraordinary resurrection OF the
ancient Irish jumper Westown. at Benning
n year or so ago. There was a horse that
seemed to the people who had been pur-
suing the game for years to have been
literally dug from his grave.
Had Forgotten the Horse.
Nobody had heard of Westown for many
years. He was twelve years old when he
turned up here but a lot of history is
made on the turf in the short space OF one
racing season, and animals that drop out
so completely as Westown are soon for
gotten. even to their names.
But the old-timers at the game looked
at each other when they saw Westown's
name among the entries for steeplechase
at Benning and they said:
THAT can't be the old Mick of a jumper
that used to clean up right along at Nor =
ris Park and Sheepshead Bay and other
New York tracks about nine or ten mil
lion years ago, can it?''
And nobody believed that 1t could be
the same old Irish leaper. But inquiries
were Instituted by the fellows who Hike to
play the "crips" and the horses that come
back to the races after long absences.
and they found out that 1t was the same
old Westown. none other. who'd been rae
ing Sin the bushes" off and on ever since
his day of youthful glory as a jumper on
the New York tracks.
The old equine chap looked his age, too.
when they brought him out for a warm-up,
and some of the people who watched his
preliminary solemnly vowed and vummed
that they could hear the old jumpers
joints creak as he ran like a rusty swing
ing sign creaking in half a gale Of wind on
a March night
took Westown. all the same. on sentf-
ment and hunch and for the sake of the
old days and for whole lot Of other pc
culiar reasons when the bookmakers slap
ped up IS to 1 against him, and the layers
were only offering to 1 at the finish and
sort OF side-steppng when much coin at
that figure was handed them.
Westown trudged to the post with tho
rest Of the batch as IL life had become
a gray and somber sort Of a nuisance to
him. But when Cassidy dropped the bunt-
ing the way he buck Jumped for the lead
was a startling thing to see. He took the
first bundle Of sticks all by himself. and
then he just cantered away out in front
by his aged lonesome for the rest OF the
two miles. II he felt like he didn't care !
to be bothered by the society or the too
near propinquity Of lot OF young and
vealy squirts of fool horses and he traipsed'
home all by his solitary the boy on him
looking back at the distant field and grin
ming cheerfuny.
There's a good deal more in the peculiar
brand of dope on the crippled and resur-
rected horses than the abject and servle
followers Of the past performance sheets
imagine. G. L. c.