Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-08

being the case. I'm sure not going to try
to pick them. I'm going up into the stand
and take mine out In looking, and that's
what the plunger did that afternoon.
Why Many Fail to Become Regulars.
Then, too, not a few men who break
into the game after a rosy-seeming begin
ming. and who might eventually train along
into the ranks of the regulars-whch Is a
profitable thing for a man following the
game a business, 1t SHOULD be under
stood-completely queer themselves by their
garrulity. They can't break themselves Of
the habit of talking too much.
They can't get out of the foolish way
of revealing condolences. They dissent
nate little bits of information not meant to
be broadcasted Thus they lose out. The
eyes of the sure-enough regulars are on the
candidates all the time, and when the regu-
lars overhear man ambitious to be con-
sdered a regular talking more or less Wild
ly through his chapeau about what he has
seen or heard or about what he thinks
about things they sort of nudge away from
him and then they gradually freeze him
out of the inside circle. The regulars, as
say, are the least conversational men on
earth themselves, and they haven't par
tlcle of federation for the loquacious ones.
But the thing that chokes off most of
the fellows eager to get into the racing
game, and that generally chokes them on
early, is their over-anxiety to get hold of
shortest conceivable space of time. They
play all the races. that is to say. Now. no
racing regular on the globe ever tried to do
that fool thing. The regulars know as well
that 1t can't successfully be done they
know that they're wearing shoes. I've
heard George Smith-Pittsburg Phl-say
often that If he could beat any racing card
three days running as some chaps ac-
tuatly expect to beat 1t every day the en-
tire season running he would make Andy
Carnegie look like somebody selling lead
pencils outside the track gate. Smith him
self rarely or never played more than two
horses in one afternoon. One was usually
his limit And he used to let days and
weeks glide by without making bet
The bulk Of the regulars-the chaps who
stick year in and year out-are careful
scanners of the card-that Is, they take
the-most furtive kind of peeks at the races
on a days card and let most of them run
for other foks-hollday visitors, for ex-
ample. They play one or two things, and
let the rest of the stuff run for the casuals.
Origin Of the Regular.
This. however. isn't answering the ques-
ton, Where do the regulars Of the race
tracks come from? Well. most of them
come originally from the poolrooms all over
the country. They are the elect of the
poolrooms In the sense that they contrived
to hold their own at that game and to grad
uate from the rooms to the tracks. The
qualities which carried them successfully
through the poolroom game are the same
which sustain them at the tracks. With
out exception they are cool-headed, eau
tious and taciturn fellows. They know the
horse game from every imaginable angle.
They know how to handicap, for one thing,
and at a pinch they could take any place
on a race track and Ali 1t acceptably. They
could start the horses. could take a trick in
the stand as judges, could act as patrol or
paddock judges, could make book, write
sheet, pay off. or act as runners or outside