The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-04
FAST TRACK MADE TO ORDER.
IRON HILL OUTLAWS WHO
WOULDN,T HEDGE. -I1ShA
Tbey Had q Horse That Couldn't Run in
Mud. but Wa 4 Sure winner Otherwise
An All Night Job in Drying Out q
Track-Caught Coming and Going,

'Wilie Shields stood Of a hedging PROPOSE
tion at New Orleans the other day, and
was glad Just $4,000 worth when IL wa
nil over" remarked a follower OF the
thoronghbreds just back from the Crescent
CITY. 1T was his horse st. Valentine thai
gave him the guessy quarter OF an hour.
shields was figuring on a fast track
The track had been fast for three or foul
DAYS, and he wanted 1t to stay fast for st.
Valentine. When he started for the Fail
Grounds the sun was a-shining, but one
of those sudden New Orleans storms began
TO brew during the third race, and that
race was hardly over before the bottom
dropped out Of the black clouds and inside
OF four minutes the track was all slop.
'The books, the state of the track IN
mind. opened up Hallowmas, one OF the
swell candidates for the Crescent City
Derby. at evens, with 8 to 1 and take your
pick bet ween st. Valentine and Little Scout,
, and slightly longer odds against Monaco
Maid. the other one. That's where Shields
went up against the temptation to try to
hedge out.
"He couldn't communicate with his
betting operators In the North from the
Fair Grounds and get them to keep OF
the 5000 that he'd ordered them In the
morning to bet on St. Valentine. So IL
looked like a case Of trying to hedge out.
Shields walked off by himself to a corner
Of the betting shed and munched gum.
Then he took of his soft hat, slapped It
v~iclously against a betting ring stanohion,
and talked to himself and to anybody elss
who cared to overhear his remarks,
I'm a-going to stand pat Is what he
said. I've been handing myself the plexus
punch long enough by fooling with this
hedging gag. I've got a good horse In
this race, and my kale's down, He can
bring it home, or he can GO TO the devil,
but whatever he does he's going to run
for mine
-Four minutes later st. Valentine was
streeling home ~a-nodding his rogue's badge
in front Of the procession, kicking wet
clods in the eyes Of Monaco Maid, the
nearest one to him at the finish. The price
against st. Valentine had scared to 6 to 1
at the close, and that was the price Shields's
commissioners got for the 81, 1000.
'shields's perplexity before the race
reminded me Of a race, also hingeing on
the state Of the track, In which the manip-
ulators OF the good thing not only de-
clined to be put In a position where they'd
have to execute a hedge. but refused to
allow themselves to be put in a perplexed
position. Did you aver hear of a race
track all but knee deep In mud being arti-
fcially dried out over night and made
pretty close to fast7 That's what was
done In this case.
THE incident I'm talking about o.
CURED at the old Iron Hill outlaw track
In Maryland, where your bosomest pal
would soak you back OF the ear with a piece
Of gas pipe for a two dollar note and then
try to arrange to cell your cadaver to a
medical college for IS cents more.
"A couple Of oils operating at Iron Hill
witha barnyard Of plugs got hold Of a three
year-old that had never run before on any
kind OF track, legitimate or outlaw, because
the colt had been too big and gross for
training as a two year-old. This was
The one they arranged to make the pork
cutting on.
They got him to a machete edge and
he'd shown them five furlongs on a fast
track that made their split watches look
Ike Colonial hall clocks that had stopped
running in 1904. They tried him in all
sorts Of going before sending him after
the dust, and one Of the things they dis
covered was that their colt could just about
stand up, and that's all In muddy going.
They got up a syndicate of Baltimore
bettors TO- go in with them on the betting
thing, and four men were sent away from
each with 81, 900 to bet on the
horse. They started two days before
.ne race was to come of. One OF them
went 10 Covington to cover the rooms
there, another to Chicago, another to New
York and one to Washington,
,,Un the afternoon before the race a heavy
set in, and continued until about
: o'clock at night, when the skies cleared
and the stars came out. The Iron Hill
track was converted into a morass.
The operators Of the good thing held
q hurried consultation. The thing to do at
ilrst seemed to scratch the good thing and
wait for a fast track, but. they knew that
under ordinary conditions the track
Wouldn't dry out for two or three days.
lhey feared that the commissioners would
return to Baltimore with the betting coin
when they didn't see the horses name In
me entries for two or three days, and they
were afraid, too, that the Baltimore syn
aioate OF bettors might get cold feet on the
proposition and withdraw their money.
over the situation that the skies cleared
ana the stars appeared, and, noticing this,
Inspiration.
BY thunder he said, well dry out the
and send the plug along
his partner asked him how that was
gong to be done, but the man with the in
didn't wait to answer ouestions
oul got busy all at once. He was In Balti.
more th~ree-quarters Of an hour later.
he vent to a construction hands board
lng house and herded together a gang OF
my men,, Offering them IS apiece for a
NIGHTS work. Then he dug up an asphalt
cohtractor and hired six flame belchers
him, Flame belchen are those OIL
IIeo machines thro wing tongues of fame
rom a long, horizontally placed box that
are used to soften UP asphalt no yemant
picks. p"N w WIN
BY. II O'Clock this hustler had the six
lame belchers loaded on a fat car hat had
Engaged from the railroad running to the
non Hill track, with a special engine TO
it. He herded his fifty construction
hands on board the fiat car, and before
Midnight the flame belchers and the ffty
Ao2rers were on the Iron Hill track.
The hustler directed the work OF driving
'ut the track a%rtiicially. The construction
amos worked like beavers until after day-
lght' Ihey dug little gulleys across the
lack at intervals OF about thirty feet
dratl the water. of. Then the fame
pulled by horses, and placed In a
pw that reached all across the track, were l.
IVY drawn over the course, shooting their
osgues q name at the soggy clods,