Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-02

into the stand. breathless and he ap-
preached my friend with a Well, wot did
l tell youse? / guess I'm punk, hey?"
Close to His Vest.
" That's right-you told me- my friend
calmly replied, stuff1ns the $500 that the
grand stand commissioner was handing
him into his pocket. You told me all
right, bless your innocent little birdie
| heart. But the next time you land a
sucker on a dead one out of motives of
| revenge, you want to refrain from openly
Dragging about it to your pals before the
race is over, any way If you'd done
that this time you'd have been just 800 to
the good, whereas the best ! really can do
Tor you now is to stake you to the price
O. a package of pepsn gum. And my
and smooth nickel.
The tout, instantly tumbIing to it that
he'd been overheard in the betting ring,
SUNK away without a word 1t was one
| tribe get the worst of it in an attempt
to doublecross a soft mark on a race
track -
How About BenningP :.
There's nothing cinchy about it that
Will idsc d meeting TINS lD-
preaching spring. The Jockey Club folks
are nightly perturbed. to put it mildly.
over the outcome of the anti-bettng court
case IN Washington, and they are even
more worried over the, antipathy to the
Washington racing game that has broken
out in Congress, with neatly drawn bill
already introduced providing for the ex-
| tirpation of racing around the capital OF
the country. The Jockey Club people
don't acknowledge that their postpone
ment of the time for giving out the Ben
ming spring dates is due to any hostile
legislation or to any fear on their part
OF the outcome of the court case. but
there are lots and lots of things that the
Jockey Club people don't become garrul-
Gus about.
1t is well within the truth to state that
the Jockey Club powers look upon Wash
ington as a city that has just about seen
It's racing days. They are ready to throw
up their hands and give Benning up as
proposition too hard to defend and
maintain in the teeth of the hostility that
has grown UP around the game at that
track. 1t is known that the Jockey Club
people are banking heavily upon the es-
adjustment. some time or another, Of a
big track somewhere between Washing
ton and Baltimore, calculated to draw the
racing patronage Of people from both
cites, but this proposition still is i'm its
conjectural and rather dim phases. 1t
may be taken for sure thing that If the
present betting case in Washington goes
against the defendant that will sound the
knell of Washington racing. Insiders
deem it very improbable that the Jockey
Club would care TO go on with another
Benning meeting in the face of a blow of
that sort.
Pimlico lettering.
There are signs, too. that the Pimlico
track is gravitating along toward its fin
ish. The Jockey Club people have been
sore against the exploiters of this track
for some time. and 1t looks as If they
had some occasion for this particular sore
ness When dates were granted to the
long idle Pimlico track few years ago
the distinct understanding was that the
hackers OF the Pilnlico track were to start
generous policy and endeavor to put
racing on a decent plane around Balti-
more. They promised to make a lot of
improvements, to establish a lot of worth
while stake races that would attract a
good class of horses. and, generally, to
| seek to put the Baltimore track on a
plane with the best of its kind in the
| country. None of these promises 1t is
| said. has been kept by the exploiters of
| Pimiico The track itself hasn't been i'm
proved at all. and 1t is considered one of
| the orneTiest race track Enclosures as TO
grandStand. betting accommoda tions and
so on. in North America, No sure enough
worth while stakes have been offered of
! the sort the Jockey Club had I'm mind
with the result that only the very COM
monest kind of horses have been attract
| ed to the Pimlico track. The Pimlico peO-
pie were told some time ago that they d
have to smoke up and behave better or
they'd lose out as to dates, but the tip
was disregarded. Now they're taking the
consequences.
Hughes Under the Wire.
| 1t is astonishing to observe how the leg
| islators up Albany way are flockinc to
1 the Hughes side of the question in the
racetrack legislation since Hughes doomed
| up quite recently the biggest sort of a
factor In national politics II is being
! openly predicted now by some of the
wisest old owls at Albany that the anti
racetrack legislation proposed by Gov.
! Hughes will go through in spite of the
| tremendous pressure that is being brought
to bear against such legislation by the
New York turf authorities Slews and
slathers of state senators and representa-
tives who. only fortnight or so ago were
declaring that Gov. Hughes attitude as to
racing was joke and that he'd never
| jam any of his anti-racing mea sures
| through while his head was hot, are now
predicting that the racetracks of New
York will be absolutely closed this year.
They've got their ears 10 the ground. The
state oranges demanding that the
governor be supported In his anti-racins
campaign. and the upstate legislators
can't afford to disregard orders so per-
emptory as these.
/ Now the Jockey Club people are won
! dering il they'll have to run off: their
qua ranteed stakes this year without bet
ting, and. therefore. without any racing
bugs at the tracks to watch the races be-