Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-08
4 shoemaker's bankroll wherewith to be-

a shoemaker's bankroll wherewith to be-
gin operations.
The question is often heard. Who are
these race track regulars that we hear so
much about, anyway?
When any answer at all is made to this
question 1t is usually a vague one. But
one evening last spring at "the Broadway
paddock in New York I headr a gentle
man put that, question to the late Bob
Pinkerton. than whom nobody In America
had & more solid fund of information
with respect to absolutely everything ap-
pertaining to American race tracks and
their personnel, and, In essence the fol-
lowing Is about the way Pinkerton who
was enjoying one of his few hours of re-
Taxation, replied to the question:
Over Fifteen Thousand Regulars.
Il should estimate that the body Of reg
ulars on the eastern race tracks make up
a body of between 1901 and 10000 men.
l won't go so far as to say that 1 am per-
sonally acquainted with all of them, but T
verify believe that 1 know the face of
every one Of the regulars who has been
at the game for long as five years 1t
taxes f1ve years at least for q man to be-
come race track regular. And he has
got TO stay with the game virtually every
Gay during the five years. at that, to be
considered one of the regular fold
ing to the game. 1 don't know of any game
IN which the doctrine of the survival of the
nttest is more amply and thoroughly proved
IMAM IN the racing business. Out of a hun
dred men who, at one time or another be.
come interested in or addicted to the racing
thing l should say, and l believe my esti-
mate TO be conservative. that only one
stays with 1t long enough to be tacitly
taken into the ranks CT the regulars
The simple enough answer is that it re-
qulres certain temperament to become
racing regular. The fellows who possess
this sort of temperament are few and far
between. siews OF men get into the game
stick around with it for few months or
even year or SO. with varying success
and then drop out. Generally they are not
cautious enough. They are men who were
never meant to play the horses. They over
play themselves They go to things too
strongly. They take too many tips. They
play too many races. They have no real
perception of racing conditions. They can't
they are poor losers. They are too talka-
i've They don't understand the art of
profitable mixing. They fiutter along, max
ing wins and taking losses. until finally
their little hour to be wholly eliminated and
effaced from the game swings along-and
they just disappear.
"A good many Of them are snatched out
by the drink. There are lots of turf re-
crults who imagine that drinking and
horse playing must necessarily 60 to-
gether. That's bad mistake. Very few
of the genuine racing regulars drink at all
and never while they are engaged in fig
uring out the chances of horses at a race
track. Whenever YOU see a happy-looking
chap lining his acquaintance up-at the
track bar after a race and ordering cham
payne for them because he has just won a
bet. you can put 1t down as a sure thing
that he isn't racing regular Not long
ago, at Gravesend. l heard a man ask his
friend, one of the main plungers, what he
liked on the days racing card.
don't like anything was the plum
gers reply. I'm merely looking on today
Don't intend to play thing. Two or three
things on the list look like they stand out
But had a fool night of 1t last night, with
rum trimmings, and I've got a few drinks
under my surctngle right now, and, that