The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-08-12

fast of ham and eggs filled the empty spot In his stomach, and life began to take on more roseate view
 He hopped onto a-race train about 12 o'clock softly hummng a bar from the latest opera, and by the time he reached the track he had convinced himself that he had winner in the first race. He fg- ured that by carefully nursing the s2 he had saved out of the flyer he would be able to double 1t in on the opening event, and that perhaps he might send the roll along
 It was the newsgatherers custom never to bet on a horse until after he had seen the racers warm up and also had looked them over in the paddock
 The first race on this particular day was an all-age scramble, in which about seventeen horses were named, from 9 year-olds to aged horses. It was a five furlong dash, and the first sprinter, Brit tannic, running in the Barbarity "all scarlet" of the Morris stable, was natural ly a strong favorite.
 The keen eye of the sporting man saw the black horse come tearing through the stretch, devouring space, evidently fit to run the race of his life.
 That's mine," he said, and immediate 1 ly went down to the betting ring to look at the price. It was even money. With his accustomed conservatism, the reporter concluded to wait until he had the others in the warm-ups, One by ono they came along, and all were passed up In favor of the black one. There was only one in the lot he had not seen. Presently good looking black horse came along. He was not warming up any too well, and the would-be better did not give him an- other thought except 10 look down his programme and discover that it was Pom : tiac. the great old horse that had run many good races in the "red. blue sash' of the Dyer brothers a few years before Pontiac had not started for two years.
 Wonder what he's doing in here," so- liloquized the young man.
 Down in the paddock he went, and care- fully sized up each of the horses. Bri- tannic naturally was the exposure of all eyes To the amazement of the news paper man he soon discovered that the black horse he had picked out as Britannia was not Britannia at all He waited. and when the Morris colt passed he carefully scrutinized him. The reporters search Ing vision discovered on one of Brltannics front hoofs tiny spot of dried blood and that set him to thinking. Britannia was very fast horse, but he had one weak ness; he would occasionally bleed, and then 1t was all off.
 "Britannic's going to bleed today" he unused. And just as he began to wonder what lie would do with his precious two spot, along came another black. his shin ing coat and hard muscles indicating that he was In tiptop condition What's that? Why it's Pontiac-Pontiac that the Dwy- CTS have resurrected. He's the one I saw warm up."
 That was enough. Back to the betting ring he went In the big pavilion man in those days would have been laughed at if he had offered to bet two-dollar bill. Down in the free field, however, there was a single booth, half of which was in the pikers lot and the other half in the grounds proper, which enabled those who got broke in the big ring to bet their aces and deuces. The reporter had glanced hurriedly at the price on Pontiac in the main ring and saw it was 100 to 1. Taking himself to the small betters' booth, he offered up his wad but he saw the price was but GO to l. at which he demurred, saying 100 to 1 could be had in the pavil- ion. The bookmaker was obliging, and he compromised, giving the better a ticket reading:
 The race was off It was a wild scram- ble from the start. A big cloud of dust was raised and it was difficult to distin- guish the colors. When the field came within the last furlong the young man saw a big striding black horse bearing red jacket overhauling his field on the turn, and the crowd was yelling "Britan- nic wins, Britannic winsF
 He looked again, strained his eyes, and this time he could distinguish a streak of blue running diagonally across the red, and with that he let out a hoop. It was Pontiac eating 'em up and the big Dwyer horse crossed the finish two lengths to the good. While thousands of people quickly scanned their programms to seq what horse had won, the reporter was madly tearing down to the betting booth to cash in his sl62. Britannia pulled up bleeding.
 With a good fat bank roll fitting com fortably into his trousers pocket the skies seemed brighter, the air was balmy, and the world had suddenly become an en- joyable place to live in.
 The second race on the days card was a 2-year-old affair and the race chron- cler did thing he rarely, if ever, had done before-he bet on W. L. Scott's Tor so to win. and the Dwser Brothers Flat bush, a full brother to Frenze, to run second. At the finish Torso was first and Flatbush second, and $100 more was added to the growing roll. Flatbush royalty bred, never won a race, and wound up nis inglorious career at Gloucester, but the horse always occupied a warm place in at least one of the daily visitors to the race track.
 With caution born of many days ex- perience on the race course, the news paper man decided that 1t was time for him to become a little conservative. Thereupon he sized up the field in the third race. In it was another of the Dwyer Brothers horses, the great Han over, who had been brought out after a seasons retirement Hanover looked good to the experienced eye of the turf writer, but he was just bit afraid of an animal called Joe Lee so the man com promised by playing Hanover to win at a good long price and Joe Lee for the place. When the numbers went up Han overs was at the top and Joe Lees dl- rectly beneath, and the wad of green in the young mans clothes had increased materially
 The reporter contented himself with making s5 bets on the remaining races. He didn't really know how much money he had, but when he went home that night he dumped 1t out on the table of his littls room and counted 1t.
 There was just S75S.
 --.s.----------