Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-05-27
TRICKS OF THE ENGLISH TURF
Coups That Have Been Made and At.
tempted in Sport Of Kings.

coups That Have Been Made and At.
tempted in Sport Of Kings.
A week or two ago funny little af-
fair happened at Wye race course. The
small Wye telegraph office was sud
denly flooded by shoal Of wires from
London. The torrent started mysteri-
ously at midday, and did not stop till
nearly 3. N
The messages, which were unclaim-
ed, turned out to be bogus ones, used
simply to block the line. For three
hours the two telegraphists were busy
taking down messages like II am Hen
ry the Eighth, I am" and "A Happy
New Year." while dozens Of people
stood angrily demanding why they
could not get through to London.
The idea in "coups" like this, is to
get good price on some horse by pre-
venting the commission agents In
town, with whom the bets have been
made, from covering themselves by
backing that horse on the course, and
so spelling the starting price.
Tricks even more ingenious are
sometimes planned by the heads" or
"The Boys Of England" as those per-
sons are called who make profession
of racing, and whose great object In
life is to "beat the bookies."
The cleverest turf trick ever carried
out was simply dazzling in its neat
ness. Some years ago, when one lead
ing sporting paper supplied all the
dailies with the racing returns, bet
ting, ETC., man called on the editor
of that paper and offered to report an
out-of the-way meeting. He had to
be there officially, 80 could do 1t cheap.
AS the meeting was quite unimpor-
tant, the offer was accepted.
In due course, the programme Of the
meeting came in and was published In
all the papers, followed by the handi-
caps, the list of arrivals, etc. .'I.
The bookmakers in town, Of course,
booked bets freely over the little coun-
try meeting 1'' .'
Z Next day the racing results made
the meeting out to be quite nice lit
tie meeting. The papers complimented
the officials, and encouraged them to
do even better next year. '" 'n
Didn't they wish they could? The
whole thing was bogus from beginning
to end. Town, fixtures, Judge, jockeys
and horses were the pure invention OF
some brilliant boy" So was the race
course, the racing, too. But the BET
ting was not. Scores Of bookmakers
lost heavily over races that had never
been run. -
An attempt was made not long ago
to repeat this trick by inventing a
small jumping meeting. It fell through
only by the merest accident. All the
details had not been properly thought
out. The bubble was burst when the
telegraph department began to make
inquiries, their special telegraphists
not being able to find the place.
Another dodge depends for its suc-
cess on the fact that bookmakers have
no absolutely hard and fast rule
against betting after the time race Is
down for. @ t.i h|..
So any one In clubs where betting is
done can make good haul If he can
get the news through first, and that
without having to excite suspicion by
leaving the room. ' atas." .'a..
In one famous case a confederate
rented the house next door to the CLUB
and had a phone fitted in. The wall be-
tween was secretly reduced in thick
ness and the name of the winner tap
ped through in Morse code.
Even in the ordinary way the result
of a race is known in all public places
as II by lightning. How. then, can the
ingenious swindler get 1t first? Well,
partly by luck, but for the most part
by foresight.
Often a horses name is sent up
winner long before the race Is over,
the sender relying on the fact that tho
horse has a good lead, etc. Ten sec
onds gained over the official result is
as useful as ten minutes.
There was q case in London recent
ly in which a watch was set on man
addicted to betting at the last mo-
ment. It was noticed that before bet
ting he used to keep casually glancng