The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-06-02
p9E TSFOR The MAN WHO BETS
CERTAIN WAYS OF TELLING WHEN
I HORSE WILL LOSE.

HInE. a Kicking HNrse, All sigma Of
~ n -HunchbackS Out OF Date.
man who bets heavily on horses that
look right to him was standing On the
Grayesend lawn the other afternoon talk
inc the next race over with his betting COM
Missioner. He was just diminishing the
,,mmissioner 10 the ring to get down a
\ L,ayv wager on his pick for the aoe when
racing man Of his acquaintance strollBd
~ behind him and placed an arm about
tie heavy bettor's shoulders.
Hello. Ed" he said, give me one OF
lpose cigarettes Of yours"
The man who makes the plunge bets
Looked distinctly annoyed, and let out an
ejaculation. He produced a gold cigarette
case, touched the spring. and held it out
N biz acquaintance, but at the same time
he called back his betting commissioner,
who was making for the ring.
Never mind that bet, joe" said the
hunger to the commissioner, when the lat
fer turned in his tracks and came back at
te summons. "Iu stay Of"
A racing man standing near the group
explained the little incident.
The sky-limit player who tagged the race
because his acquaintance boned him for a
cigarette, he said, lis one Of these super
stitious mustang players. His main bug is
that when anybody maces him for one Of
the paper smokes before a race he Ia bound
70 lose no matter what he goes to in the
nce.
When the touch for a cigarette comes
10 time, as it did just now, he stays of the
race altogether, no matter how much alive
the one he has picked may look to him.
He's been nursing that bug for two or three
years now.
Nearly all of the high notch players of
tie cayuses give ear to the buzzing of their
own particular kind Of superstitious bugs
and some Of these are queer insects. /
can remember when the only generally
= prevalent racetrack superstition was the
hunchback thing.
Most of the bookie whangers believed
that they could get the money II they could
touch the hump Of a hunohback ON their
way to the track or within the track grounds.
But this gag petered out five or six years
ago. when it developed into a regular hunoh-
back industry or trust.
-Hunchbacks got TO thronging the
track trains, and they hung around the
entrance gates to the tracks and paraded
up and down the lawns. waiting to have
their humps touched. They looked for the
piece Of change from those who touched
their humps, and for a number OF years
they did we'll at the game.
But too many Of them got into it, and
finally the deformed ones got Jealous of
each other and started in TO scrap with
each other for patrons. Then they had
to he shooed away.
Thus the one big and universal track
superstition was broken up into hundreds
Of individual ones. Some OF the most
level headed Of the big players are the
fellows with the oldest superstitions.
One Of them. a man who rarely or never
bets less than g. 600 to a rae and who not
uncommonly unloads TO the tune Of ten
times 81 900 when his convictions are strong,
has the queer weevil that II he catches
sight OF a woman with the string Of one Of
her low cut shoes united, he's In bad. He
tied for two years to beat that one down
by, disregarding it, but it finally tied him
In bow knots.
This bug Of his goes back to a day. three
woman friend to the track. On the " ay
to the track he had to stoop down and tie
one or other OF the strings Of her low cut
shoes several times. and finally. in a mo-
rnent OF hot weather p~etulanoe, he said
W ltI UldI " Wdb a III Hllo OOulul Y
righerself out In a pair Of kicks that wouldn't
keep a man kneeling on the ground, In front
Of her, like an idiot, half the time.
This made her sore, n when the train
reached the track b promptly got into
acarriage and returned to New York. telling
him before she went that she hoped he'd
drop the whole bank roll and then some.
He dropped it right enough. He played
four rank Edams that day, all for chunks;
got left at the post twice, disqualified
once. and outTun the other time.
Then for four straight days he never got
near enough to a pay on line to chuck q
ball Of popcorn at the cashier. 1t was the
most disastrous streak he'd had for years,
and it put some lines OF thought at the COR
ners Of his eyes.
Kid Weller, than whom nobody will
send the spinach along faster when he
thinks he's correct, gives aid and comfort
TO a curious kind Of bug. He likes the horse
that comes to a halt n stands still for q
minute or two on the parade past the stand
before going to the post.
Weller has got IL that the horse that
does that is u sensible, cool blooded brute,
aud that his purpose in stopping on the
way to the post IL just TO survey the sitla-
ton and take a look at things.
The biggest bundle that Weller ever took
down during his turf career-and he's
annexed some whopping chunks-was when
David GarTick at 20 to 1 beat the odds on
hthelbert in a great long distance race.
MS ldhelOWn tlat Gay was 10 close 10 JTe
six figure thing that the layers might Just
as well have paid him OF that way and've
been done with IL.
We'll, David Garriok did the halt thing
two or three times on the parade 10 the post
that day and there wasn't any kicking
him out Of his halts until he got ready TO
tudge ahead again either. Weller put
that alongside of some previous observa-
tons he had made of horses being success
mi after doing the pull up thing In that way,
and now the bug has q firmer hold on him
than Humming Bird Tyler's fondness for
a Dutch book-when somebody else Is
making it.
No less a sage OF the turf than Dave
Gideon has the bug that the horse that
picks up a piece Of accidental overweight
10 a race is M to be looked out for and
PLAYED IL the dope gives him any kind OF
chance in the world. / won't say that
Gideon can show you how this has slfted
out in actual practice during q period ex-
tending over 206 years, for he isn't quite
that old, although IL ID commonly said that
b remembers the races won by Eagle,
te great Virginia Thoroughbred, shortly
AFTER the war OF 1917 But Mr.. Gideon can
take you back q long time on that over
weight dope and show how 1t has oopped
te change In g remarkable number Of In