The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-05-26
TRANCE or PHIL COSTIGAN
EHILE IN IT HE WOW $4,000 AT
THE TRACK.
Then lie SObered Up. swOre OF for q Year
and Lost His Money in Six MOnths-The
Record for n One Afternoon winnings
Of aTIpsy Man-Baek 70 the Type Case.


s'That tlpsy man who took $1,000 from
the Belmont layers the other day wa a long
strider, right enough. but he fell more than
two-thirds shy OF making the record yank
down for a rummy." said a detective who
used to be assigned TO the Western tracks.
"A compositor named Phil Costigan set
the bun mark for a n afternoon win when,
in 1897. at the st. Louis Fair Grounds, while
carrying a load that would have sagged
q chihuahua bullion packing burro. he put
the skids under the chalkers for $4,000.
@Costigan had just lost his job that day
for being drunk. He had just Si4, and he
owed two weeks board TO his landlady
and a wash bill and other things n his
good suit was In hook. He thought Of taxi
ing the run to Chicago.
Somehow he wandered to the raoetrack.
Then he tossed in a couple more drinks
at the bar and began to leer at the pro-
gramme with q hand over one eye 80 that
he wouldn't see double.
"Ferrier, at 20 70 /, in the first race, with
long hot Conley up. took his eye. He
passed ten Of his remaining eleven tools on
hat one, tucked the ticket beneath the
Gweatband Of his hat and went over and
buzzed one Of the beer drawing barkeeps
while the race was being run. When the
crowd came fiocking back to the ring after
the numbers were out Costlgan asked some
body who'd got 1t.
S'That hop-eating mule Ferrier. and 1
s'pose maybe they amt cheatln' with that
one was the disguised reply.
~Costigan leisurely took another drink or
two and then prowled around till he found
his chalkeT and collected. He wRdded one Of
the two 500 bills. slid him into something the
size Of q spitball and sunk it in his watch
pocket, where he hoped he might forget It
till he needed it.. Then, without 30 much
as q peek at the prices up for the second race.
he took another one y look at the pro-
gramme.
Harry Duke. the old sprinting Grip. with
the bughouse boy Britton up, looked right
to him. He wabbled over to the nearest
stall and found that 8 to l was wrapped
around Harry Duke. He bought an $500
to 500 ticket, and then steered back to the
bar to talk 1t over.
Duke, cakewalkingi' was the bawl all
over the place a few minutes later. and then
Costigan began that thing the dead games
call open wine.'
He split In a couple Of pints on top Of the
hard stuff he'd been sopping up for four
or five days. and then he was just able TO
high step over and have the man slip him
$500. He was a %salter, all right. for he took
two of the century notes from this pile and
stuck them in his inside waistcoat pocket.
where no man ever looks for money until
after a souse Is all over and he's giving
himself a thorough frisking to see II he's
held out anything against himself.
"'Y'want to 60 to that silva lob in this one
advised the barkeep when Costigan lined up
again after collecting.
silva was the 2 to 5favorite in the third.
but Costigan didn't know that. and he
wouldn't have been bothered II he had
known it. Madeleine, with the in and out
boy Matthews to ride, looked like the frkin
to him. and It wasn't his afternoon for lis
tening to the advice Of folks. Madeleine
was held at 0 to 1. and Costigan had to sway
along to four different stalls to get $500
down at that figure.
while the race was being run Costigan
was seatedon a high stool at the lunch bar.
sta king himself to a clam chowder founda-
ton for more drink. and when he bunch
scurried back with the nformaticn that
Madeleine had made silva look like some
thing with the rim torn of. winning pulled
to the shape OF a fried cake by ten daylight
lengths, Coetigan went right ahead and fin-
ished his clam chowder and then ordered
another plate Of it. He was 30 busy eating
that he didn't get down on the fourth race
at all.
sBy this time the word about Costigan's
nailings was all over the grounds. and the
touts and fnskers began to hem him in.
They tried to herd him up into shadowy
corners for the purpose Of telling him things.
But the food he'd eaten had sobered him a
bit, and he shouldered the grafters out of
his path and made for the open air Of the
lawn, where he saw by the jockey board
that the fifth race was to be a two horse
thing, a duel between two great rivals at
the Fair Grounds a decade ago Can Gallop
and May Gallop.
Everybody was giving II to Can Gallop,
because he had put II on the other one two
or three times OF late. but Costigan was
there with a mulish bunch. There were
several hundred men lolling around near
him, waiting to see how he was going to
view the thing, He didn't say a word to
any Of them-didn't in fact know that the
bunch lowered near him for a hunch-but
ziRzaRged into the ring. where. with the
FIRST four books he came to, he made $500
bets on May Gallop at Z to 2, Can Gallop
being the prohibitive favorite in the two
horse race at 1 TO 4.
sCostigan stood to take down 81, 900 IL
the dope was wrong. n the bunch people
who watched his operations tool 1t that the
dope probably was wrong or the lucky
drunk wouldn't be trying to reverse it.
So they swooped on May Gallop with their
bundles, and at the finish had knocked
May Gallop's price down to 8 to s, while
Car Gallop's figure jumped up.
@Costigan had his elbows on the bar
chinning with the beer drawer and damn
ing the foreman who'd canned him in the
morning while that two-horse thing was
coming of and 30 he didn't see it. / saw
IL though, and IL was puzzling to note how
the luck trailed along in the wake Of the
rummy.
aCan Gallop took the track at the fash
OF the rag and kicked the clods into May
Gahop's eyes for half the six furlong dis
lance, when he faltered and stopped all in
the twinkling OF an eye. He was a patched
up Grip, and he'd broken down. May Gal
lop came on and won Ike something traps
ing around In a stake walkover. As the
winner came laundering down the stretch
the howl wasn't May Gallop gets it, but
The souse oopsl Wee for the rumsky
dope!
by this time the ringsters who had fallen
for the tipsy compositor's jolts were the
sore butchers. There was only one more
race left for them TO try for a rebate out
NJ Cnafioan and fhAy aent their rlnnare tn