Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-27
WIEN S15,OO5 WAS BID FOR PONTICO-
RECORD RAISE IN THE SELLING
RACES-TWO BIG COUPS.

( timber topper, Trouble one of the best OF
his day; Coronet, another good one over
sticks; Calvert, Linda and Daylight. In
the auction Trouble, ridden by the crack
| jockey, Pat Nancy, sold for $500; Coro-
net. $3.50: Daylight, $3.50; the field. slO,
Daylight was ridden by Colored jockey
| named Towson
A Still Hunt for Torn Tickets.
After a spectacular contest over Picnic
| Hill, through the woods, round the south
field, over the Liverpool and all the other
picturesque features of Jerome's diversi-
led cross country course, Daylight beat
Trouble by two lengths with Coronet
third. The western men cheered the
gray and his colored rider Justify that
the latter. in his citation. got off his horse
| in hurry, without waiting to ask per
mission to dtsmount.
| With his tack in his arms Towson
was half way to the scalesroom before
the Judges noticed his ATTRACTION OF the
! rules, and he was at once halted and
| brought to the judges. On acknowledging
that he had not asked leave to dismount.
TOR even held up his whip TO the Judges 70
call their attention to him, Towson was
med 500 and Daylight disqualified for
| he purse and bets. the rules at that
| ime specified that penalty for such an
| omission.
Then ensued a scene the like OF which
| has never been seen since. for the sense
| aFs and obnoxious rule enforcing such a
| -idculoUs penalty was at once repealed
| by the American Jockey Club The western
non who had backed Daylight for such a
| 'eavy stake, however. furnished the least
art of the excitement. for they took
their misfortune philosophically. after
| living Towson his walking papers. But
| hundreds Of persons who had backed tn
| recond horse. Trouble, and torn up their
| tickets. began a hurried search through
the grass and lawns for their bits of torn
up pasteboard.
| Men jostled each other while down on
| their knees on the grass, and in several
cases arguments of ownership Of torn
tickets almost produced free scraps The
officers OF the track finally stepped in
and restored order, but for a long time
quiet searches for torn-up Trouble tickets
were going on. A friend and I were
peculiarly fortunate in search for three
Trouble tickets of his that he had torn In
several pieces and thrown under the seat
on the stand from which we had wit
messed the race.
It was the last race OF the day and get
| ing dark fast. and by the time we got up
% the second tier of the stand. where w
-ad sat matches had to be lighted in the
s1arch for his three tickets Soon thu
light revealed the little heap of pieces Of
'ardboard, and, as they fitted together al;
light. his S33 for the three mutual pools
ras safe.
Abuse of Selling Races.
Selling races. from the time they were
instituted intended to give moderate
horses a chance against better ones,
have furnished more Of a bone of con-
tent!on than any other class of events
on American tracks Not through the
use of them as medium, but through
their abuse as we see almost every
race day. when stake horses are entered
at the price of selling platers. giving the
poor owner very little chance.
1t was selling race at Washington
Park, Chicago, in which the Baggage case
occurred. The judges had placed the
wrong horse third, and payment Of bets
had been confirmed and was going on
for some minutes before the officials were
satisfied Of their error. Then they placed
he right horse third. as they should have
done at first. and sent word to Frank
Shaw. lessee Of the betting privileges
that any losses incurred by bookmakers
in paying out show bets on the horse
wrongly placed third would be met by
the club.
The late J. E. Brewster. secretary of
the Washington Park Club. was response
BILE for this decision, An extremely credita-
BILE one to the club: and, If memory serves
| me, it cost the club something like $24 900
double payments in their SHOW books:
Whether any layers fixed up" their
sheets in the interval between the two
decisions will never be known, but they
certainly had every opportunity to do so.
At Kansas City. more than any other
racing center IN the middle west the
meetings used to attract very mixed
class Of men and horses from the
| ranges. the bushes and points in Okla
homa and Indian territory and many of
| these cowboy" turfmen had little knowl-
edge of the rules of racing, especially
| those governing selling races. producing
q situation over a selling race at Exposi-
ton Park in 1895 that had tragic and hu-
rorous features com-4ned.
AS general manager and presiding Judge
hf the meeting l gave a selling race for
gray horses. We had a number of that
color on the track. more than usual, and
the race received ten entries. There wers
ell kinds OF grays in ths collection-dap-
pie glays. iron grays and 'piebald' grays
A horse of the latter color from Colo
| rado-Spanker-was n light gray. with
calico" patches on his back and tanks
an animal that a Barnum & Bailey agent
would gobble up as show horse. His
owner. James Meares a cowboy and
plainsman. was making his first visit
east.
A Winchester as an Argument.
To make long story short, Spankers
| trials had been SO good that he was made
a big favorite and won in a ealIop. las
owner did not bet dollar on him, let
ting him run FOR the purse. After thu
race. when Spanker was put up for sale
the horse was boosted" $500 over his
entered price of $500 and bid In by his
owner at S. advance.
Meares started off to his stable with
the horse. and after the usual time had
elapsed failed to show up with the money
| to make good the raise. messenger sent
for him returned with Superntende
| Douglas who said he had met Meares and
his horse going out the track gate.
Maeres was riding the horse, with a Win
cha ster over his shoulder. and when Doug
las told him he must not take the horsa
off the track Mearss raised his gun and
called out Don't stop me. my friend
| Needless to say. Douglas did not stop"
him. and In about an hour Meares
showed up at our stand. acknowledg ID
that he had hid his horse. but said that he
did not know the rules as to selling races
and did not have the $685. cash to max
| good. He told us If We would give him
until the next dav he would make good.
! This we did. and the incident was ended
| the next day by the Colorado man making
good the afict. But he took the next
train back to the plains with his mot
| tied gray horse Spanker, saying that
racing at home was good enough for him.
GOLF CAME FROM HOLLAND.