Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-11


around on Celebration.
! "Chub Rinltie was one of them. Club
| by some miracle had maced somebody
for $50 before making the track that day,
and so confident was he that II the big
rain got there in time to muck up the
track old Celebration would win the race
In the grease that he got the whole $40
down on the ancient skate to cop, in ten
| 81 bets with different bookies.
THE horses were already on their way
to the post, but they hadn't made half
of the distance to the barrier before the
heavens opened. 1t doesn't rain often
out there, but when 1t does it's earnest
about 1t. The water came down in
| Jumps.
Hey. what did tell you. boz heard
a voice right behind me saying. and there
stood Club in The grand stand aisle, with
an imbecile grin on his homely mug.
| Can't even see the judges stand from
here, hey? Half minute O. this and the
track'n be knee deep. What did 1 tell
your
"I suppose Celebration is just as good
as In now, eh? I said to him, feeling
sort Of sorry for the bug and wondering
how man who had been bucking the
pony game for so many years as Club
had could be so hopelessly idiotic.
His numbers out and the red
boards down. replied Club, still with
the imbecile grin on his features.
"It was so dark in the stand, and this
at o'clock in the afternoon that 1
could hardly see Club, although he stood
right behind me in one of the aisles. 1t
was a slx-furlong sprint, and the horses
started on the yon side of the track op-
posite the grand stand. OF course. not a
glimpse of the field at the barrier could
be seen for the blackness and the solid
sheets of pelting rain, but the bell in the
IT, =
field had got away from the post and
then the folks in the stand settled down
almost In silence to await the result.
There was no roofing. The horses
could not be seen. and there was nothing
to root about. Most of the folks in the
stand had played the favorite as had,
and everybody knew that the favorite
could hardly walk In the mud, and the
track was already a morass So they kept
still and just waited-all but Club.
"Chub talked fast, as If to himself, in
low key 1t was a queer kind of numb
ling he kept up. when 1 came to think
about 1t later.
Well, this is one o. my days. I heard
him humble to himself as he stood right
behind me. i cop all right I've had bum
break for years. but this is my day
right enough. Nothin' but Celebration.
Celebration all by hisself. Pipe. He kin
Bet he's forty lengths in front now-I
know he is. Wait till he streaks in all
alone. Just you wait, people. All alone.
He'll be all alone.
law, stow thatr q lot of folks in
Chub's neighborhood grouched at him,
and he stopped mumbling just as queer
splashing on the track, down to the left
of the stand. brought us all to our feet
The splashing didn't sound like any field
lr ocN cnla g
made by just one horse. The one horse
could only be seen vaguely through the
black rain. But he came clompng along
about his business, and not until he bore
right down upon the Judges stand was
there any sound of the hoofbeats In the
mud of the field away back yonder be-
hind him.
"As the solitary horse, far in front,
tipped past the stand the sky was ripped
by a purple blaze of lightning, and the
horse as we'll as the number on his saddle
cloth, was made out by the sharp-eyed
race callers in the press box.
"'Why, It's No. 5-Celebration! four
or five of the men In the press box ex-
claimed.
"oh, you babyp 1 heard Club muir
muir right alongside of me. He said 1t
quietly, in a sort of choked, muffled
tone. Then he sat down on one OF the
aisle steps. folded his arms in weary
sort of way, and was quiet
.Chub' said 1, reaching out and hand
ing him a light clout on the back, I'm
glad for you sure am glad, boy
'He didn't make any reply, nor did
he even look up.
Kind of bad for you a two-thousand
win on a hundred-to-one skate, eh?'
said to him.
But Club didn't make any answer,
and so stopped down to take peek into
his face wondering what allied him. for
he was a loquacious customer generally.
especially after one of his picks had
copped.
''Chub's head was hanging sort of side
ways, with the left cheek resting on his
folded arms. There was a sort of satis-
fed grin on his features, and his eyes
were closed
''Tbe grin didn't look exactly right to
me, and so shook him lightly. He top
pied back from his sitting posture, and
there he was, stretched out on the steps,
with that queer grin on his face, and not
move in him.
"'IIey q doctor herer some of the
bunch around yipped out. and in half a
minute the Jockeys surgeon, who was in
the stand, was bending over Club, whom
he knew.
"'Chubs plumb cashed,' said the doc
tor, after momentary examination, and
he was right.
"And then, back in 81, I was standing
alongside a we'll known San Francisco
politician when he died from the strain
of having won $1,000 even money bet on
old Rosinante.
"The politician was a big, rugged look
ing man, who had been playing the
horses on the California tracks for many
years. He'd visited the eastern tracks in
the summer of 81 and they'd put big
dent in him. His bad luck had lasted
with hardly break for the month or so
after the California racing began, and he
was known to be about $4,000 to the bad
on the racing year.
ION this day he came to a lot of us
around the stables and asked what we
thought of Rosinante. We told him it
looked too hard. Rosinante was in that
day with Rosormonde and Napamax, both
of them dead shifty ones. We advised
him to walt for something softer, but
he had the Rosinante bug bad, and
he told us he was all for that
one to fetch little of his
losings back, anyhow. Rosinante
opened at even money. with Rosor-
monde at 6 to and Napamax at As or
some such matter.