Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-24

/ Sdlu IL lIllilOil NlOl-
lars changed hands in the betting.
Last year the crowd had dwindled to
| 20, 600 and this year there were less
than 5000 people within the gates. 1t
| is the same everywhere. Almost in a
night the American people have chang
ed from the worlds greatest lovers OF
| horse-racing to determined opponents
of the game.
1t was thought that the outlawing
of the race track in the United States
would result in the transplanting of
| the Yankee racing stables to Canada,
| but Canadian spOrtsmen have de-
clared that they want no "carpetbag
racing there and will not permit the
! long seasons that have been the Gus
| tom on American tracks. However, the
| Canadians have not yet reached the
frame of mind where the bookmaker
| is looked upon as an outlaw. The
Cubans do not have the same scruples
against "carpetbag' racing as the
Canadians, and the sportsmen of Ha-
vana are hoping to induce the Ameri-
can horsemen to come there for a win
ter racing season.
1t has long been Gained that horse
racing cannot flourish without the
bookmaker, and this finds no better
proof than in the case of the Saratoga
track, which, up to the time of the
opening of Belmont park, was the fin
est race course in the world. Who does
not recall Saratoga, richest summer re-
sort in America; place where money
flowed freer than the waters of its
many springs; summer headquarters of
both great political parties in New
York, and meeting place of statesmen
from every part Of the country? Yet
the grandeur that was Greece and the
glory that was Rome are no more de-
parted than the splendor of Saratoga.
King Thoroughbred reigns there no
more, and bill is pending in the New
York legislature for the sale of the
Saratoga property to the state.
Never in the history of the country
did racing give more promise of per-
manency than in 1907. An army of
men greater in numbers than that
with which the United States won the
Mexican War found it their means of
livelihood. Enough millions We're in
vested in the sport to equip a second
rate navy, and enough millions more
were annually spent in its upkeep to
maintain that navy. Never had such
tremendous crowds gathered at the
tracks; never had there been better
horses, better Jockeys, better trainers
or better tracks But what seemed to
be the signs of even a greater future
proved the beginning of the end. The
very prosperity of the sport contribute
that We're cheered by tens of thou
sands as they led their field under the
wire are selling for less than 10 per
cent of their one-time value.
1t was the bookmal1er who ruined
the game. He played both ends against
the middle with too great success
Statisticians have figured out the per-
centages of the bookmaker, and these
figures show that his chances were so
to 40 In other words. for every dol
lar than wos posted in bets, he made
60 cents and the bettor 40 cents. He
might lose today and also tomorrow
but the end of the season would show
him well ahead of the game. The man
who could least afford it was the most
frequent loser He was the "piker,'
the fellow who put up his money on
"hunch," or laid it because he had
heard a rumor from the inside that
this or that horse was going to win a
certain race. The poor fellow did not
know that the bookmakers start most
Of these rumors themselves, that the
bookmakers laid their odds after some
one held a stopwatch on the entries at
their sunrise tryouts. The public sim
ply constituted itself the guardian of
the ''piker" when it banished the book
maker.
Never in legislative history has any
sport died so hard as when racing
met IFS death in the New York legiS-