Semi-weekly herald., 1907-11-28

goers as Pittsburgs Phil
One year before his big clean up
Smith bad purchased for twelve hum
dred dollars yearling known as King
Cadmus. With that nnerring judg-
meDt which gained for him fortune
OF nearly three million dollars and
which kept him from serious disaster
during the whole OF long career as
an owner and bettor. this strange Sc
cretive gambler recognized that b..
mediately shipped into the country
to be trained under the eye of the
one man whom Smith could or would
trust-his brother William -Hap)r5si
from the training quarters. coupled
with personal clocking at trials. fully
justified every expectation and ar
rangements We're soon made to enter
the horse as 2-yearoid at the Sheep
head Bay meeting. Fred Taral, at that
time one OF the cleverest jockeys in
the United States the has ridden ex
clusiyely in Austria for the last sew
eral years., was engaged without
flourish OF trumpets for the race.
Several horses OF decided class ere
entered in the same event; bur the
fact that Plttsburg Phil owned King
Cadmus caused most of the bool;mR-
kers to be somewhat wary A sharp
eye was kept open for the conmis
sitners who transacted netting opera
mons for the plunger. More OF chem
sppeared in the ring. however AMI so
all of the books open. i wiz King
c ,nmus quoted at ten % ou-.. which
trJeaied to be n veIy rl,r"Yd.ive
figure in view OF the past performa icc
If some of the other entrauts.
shortly after the price had been
chalked up. Pittsburg Phil strolled .nto
he ring made one bet OF two h'il-
dred dollars on his horse, and walked
out without bothcring the other book
makers. Immediately. the public up
aeared TO go crazy on the subiect ci
King Cadmus' changes. and at least >
score Of strasSsrs went up and Down
The line betting in hundreds. until tue
price had e. .ammered down to
seven to one nm Is, ,tsrt OF the race
iuade further Spoc'ilXuoI impossii. e.
'rhe boolmakers were very happy, ',e
ing satisfied that If Phil had intcnde &.
TO make killing he would never nav.
appeared in person, and certainly
y paltry two hundred dollars. But
his presence and the single bet had
helped business wonderfully. Every
amateur from New York and from
other cities who had heard the whisper
that the plunger was betting on his
own horse had hastened to put down
large sums. To make assurance dou
| BILE sure. every commissioner who had
| over done business for the owner ol
| King Cadmus had been seen. and hat
sworn by all the gods OF horse racing
| that Phil was not betting dollar
more than the two hundred dollars
which he had staked publicly,
But when from points of vantage
tney saw the finish of the race. saw
Taral, who had entered the stretch
at second place, closing up the gaI
without irsorting to the whip. ant
whip descended SHARPLY just once, anc
King Cadmus fairly jumped in front o
the leader and went by the Judges ,
little more thaa r neck to the good
they began to doubt
Pittsburgh Phil, impassive in victor.
as in defeat, closed his glasses ant
turned toward them face that tolc
nothing. II was not until two day!
| hter that the bookmakers leaTnet
that an entirely new set of commits
sioners. not one OF whom knew tn,
other, had been engaged for the pur
pose Of taking ont OF the ring q littl,
more than one hundred thousand dol
lars on that one race Even to thi.
| day the story is known only 10 limit
ed circle of race goers: bu, II is typi
cal OF the methods of the plunger who
left job at eight dollars week AS
cork cutter TO win an immense for
tune op the turf
Mike pwyer, whose name is asso
ciated with many exploits similar tt
those of Pittsburg Phil, was not nearl,
so successful as general rule, anS
certainly his last years were disastrou,
In the extreme. When he welt tc
England with Richard Croker severa
wears ago for the purpose of cleanin.
up the English tracks. he boasted tha
he was worth a million and u half
and In addition had stable of th,
hest horses In America. Last year
he died. practically penniless. Never
theless, in his time he won large sums
Harry Reed, the horse on which h,
lost a fortune in England, was tn.
medium OF several coups in this conn
try, AS were also Don Alonzo. Cleopas
Ben Brush, Hammie. and banquet.
| Probably the most spectacular bet
ting ever seen at race track was
done by Dwyer a. the same Sleeps