The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-30
JOBS ON The OUTLAW TRACKS,
RACING MEN RECALL THE T.
DAYS AT WHEELING.
A Race for T~wo-Year-Olds Was won
by a six-lear-Old-Ihe Runaway Trick
st Iron ~Hnl-Scheme OF the Owner
OF Two Horses That Looked Alike

OF Two Horses That Looked Alike.
We'll, they'll all be taking a chance and
running two-year-olds as three-year-olds
at the tracks next week, is one Of the ex-
pressions of this immediate time among
turfmen, who allude to the official change
which is registered in the ages Of all
thoroughbred horses on January 1. The
springing Of the catch phrase among a
bunch Of horsemen recently brought out
a mess OF yarns of Iron Hill and Wheeling.
the old outlaw tracks.
IF o turn that around and make il
running a three-year-old as a two-year-old
it might have some meaning" observed
ono OF the veterans of the group, -but even
then it wouldn't stretch the limit the way
it used 70 be stretched when the winter
spirits were being pulled of at the des-
perado tracks.
Once. at Wheeling. / saw a six-year-old
stallion run as a two-year-old. He won
like a Awkins 'ound, at that. and took
down a piece of paper change for his owner
as big as a Shanghai rooster.
when the big winner was brought back
TO weigh in three or four soreheads, who'd
bet on other things in the race. quickly saw
by his conformation that he wasn't any
two-year-old, even an overgrown one, or
anything like it.
-'Ringer!' one of them bawled up to the
judges. That's an old mud scow. He's no
more a two-year-old than Hickory Jim is a
weanling. Ringer
-G'wanT called one Of the judges down
from the stand. Go chase yourselfr'
.Oh, you're in, hey?' yelped a couple Of
the sore horsemen. 'Gettin' y'r bit, hey7'
Went away while you kin or out the gate
$500, ~ .al ,o,,r aool- 80 r,x xu,sL -.
! replied the judge, just as offhand as il he
was ordering a jockey to report in the stand.
and the horsemen, who well knew that the
Judge meant what he said and had the power
TO make what he said stick, did the crawl
away, growing.
"In the meantime the big six-year-old
was being led away.
Let me have a peek athis teet'r derisively
yelled another of the suspicious horseman
to the owner, who had hold Of the big phony's
bride.
I'm hand you a thump in the teetl' was
| all the satisfaction that one got, too, for
his howl, and the big horse was put away in
the shelter of his sned and all of the chaw
around the betting ring didn't make a par
thing by gnawing on the poncho after one
of these things had come OF at the old
time outlaw tracks.
The fun of it was the judges on the follow
IOWIIlk ddy obuCo LlCA ubhdi " Lld tldlt-
ment in cases of this lind to the effect that
they had investigated tho rumors, finding
no foundation for the same, and that settled
IT,. The people behind the big six-year-old
poisoned the poolrooms all over the c%ountryR
from Covington to Sausalito, on it,"
Il saw the runawa gag worked at Wheel
ing for a chunk of the zinc big enough to
sheathe a ~catamaran," said another of the
old timers who had his day at the old out
laws. 1T was a trick borrowed from Iron
Hill, where they cooked up more new ones
to 2-X the bettors and himfam the layers
than at any other racetrack, legitimate or
crooked, before or since.
almost everything else had been slid
through but this runaway thing at Wheel
ing, when a man who had trimmed all thu
states and slate fighters at Iron Hill with
the runaway dodge breezed along and
showed Wheeling how that one could be
got over.
He had two three-year-olds, half
brothers by the samesire, thatlooked 30 much
alike they could barely be told apart. He
entered one Of them for a mile race one
day and then got hold Of a chunky Mick
Of a riding boy who could hang on to a
horse for a week without falling of from
WEAKNESS. A lot of the velocity tea was
inserted into the system Of this horse be-
fore he sailed to the post, and one Of the in
gradients in the juice was purposely calcu-
lated to make him bughouse.
The horse was held at 8 to 5, the favor
ties figure. at post time. But he never got
TO the post.
AS soon as the paddock gate bars we're
raised and the horse got out onto the track
he grabbed the steel in his teeth, and the
way he did hop around that track for about
a quarter of an hour made even the hot
frlnkfurter cooks come out in the open
and tlke a look. The boy on the horses
blcS-so it looked to the gang-couldn't
do p thing with him.
This horse just loped and bucked and
~spraddled around and around. and the little
TURK on his back appeared to be hanging on
for his life, though, as a matter of fact, when
the horse had sprinted around the track
seven times the ~youngster furtively kicked
him out so as TO make him finish out the
eighth circuit of the track in order that the
horse might flag past the stand with a per-
feet dog tired look.
AT the finish of this eighth circuit OF the
track the boy steered the dripping horse
into the paddock, and the horse, as IL doing
it for himself, made for his own barn.
in the meantime the owner of the run
stand. He told the judges that he'd like to
have permission to withdraw his horse from
the race in view OF the long distance the
animal had run away.
Not on your life can you withdraw your
horse!' one Of the judges Numbered at the
owner. You'll have TO race your horse.
sir, even II he drops.dead. There is some
thing peculiar behind the conduct of your
horse, sir, but no matter about that, race
him you must and shall. and that's all
there is to it leave the stand. il you please
whereupon the owner climbed down, giving
a realistic imitation of a chagrined person.
in the meantime the horse that had run
eight times around the track had got around
behind his own barn, as il of his own motion,
though he'd been carefully steered there by
his boy. Behind that barn the half brother
OF the runaway was waiting, all saddled and
bridled and ready for the race Of his life.
and with the hop in him, too.
He was a better horse than his run
away brother, at that, and figured TO beat
the field still waiting at the post by a block.
The boy who'd been riding the runaway
just leaped on and got on board the fresh
half brother. Soapsuds had been dashed
all over the fresh horses sides to give
him that foamy, lathery look. and the
hop in him made him breathe hard.
"In the meantime the bookies had h'isted