The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-27

Those who play the ponies around the New York tracks are bemoaning the fact that they are in the grip of "bookie ring and that the mutuel form of betting is not permissible in 1 the Empire State.
 The man doesn't live who can beat the horses around New York under the present system of bettlng,' declared a , prominent operator. "He may win for day. or for a week or even for a month, but no man who bets consist ently-unless blessed with miraculous luck-can finish the season anywhere except minus in the pocketbook. odds laid by the bookmakers' ring makes 1t impossible to beat the books Back in the days when public book making was legal around New York 1t was much different. Then there was l competition between rival books and 1 the odds that were dished out to the | public were fair at least. In those days | what is known as a 30 per cent book was rather unusual. The percentage against the public was even less than i thatsin many cases. But nowadays the odds are so arranged that it's tJ per cent book-for the bookmakers. ,, A GOOD EXAMPLE One of the best instances of how the public is treated by the bookmak CTS was furnished by a race a few weeks ago. St. Allan was entered in 8 contest against seven or eight of the greatest horses in training. Each had beaten St. Allan time and again. St. Allan up to that time had run four teen racesr-and never had won: If the race had been conducted on the mutuel form of betting St. Allan, un- doubtedly. figured as a 50 to 1 shot. In the old days, even in the tlghtest kind of a book, he would have rated no shorter than 40 to 1. But the book makers laid to 1 and 10 to against St Allan. The horse did win the race and the bookmalSers, instead of being hit for 40 to i as a minimum, suffered loss of and 10 to 1.
 The public always gets the worst of it on Sundays and holidays. The "bookies" know that the crowd usually plays the horses which makes favorite. Frequently the books make false fla vorite. The public bets on the false favorite; the real favorite is almost un- backed The real favorite wins the false favorite loses-and the books clean up.
 "A horse named Abadane was pus into race not so long ago after lay off of a month. The fairest sort of odds against this horse should have been IA to 5, but the books made him 10 10 favorte. The public leaped to Abadane in a hurry and Abadane was beaten. Naturally the public lost its money. All the time the bookmak CTS figured that Abadane did not have much of a chance to win. but the books reasoned that if they made him the choice the public would bet heavily on Abadane-which 1t did.
 Not so long ago horse named Broomspum, which had never won race and had finished bad second twice, was pitted against horses which had won one or more contests. The books quoted Broomspun to in that race. The price made the public jump to backing Broomspum because it decided that if the bookmakers would lay only to against the horse. Broomspum must be ready to win. Broomspum finished out of the money the unbacked real favorite won and once, more the books won
 "The suckers of the race track got another celebrated trimming in the case Of Gladiator. He was tossed into a race against Wildair and Donnacona No one studying the form sheet could give Gladiator a chance to beat Wild+ This colt had run back of Man O War when the latter established a worlds record for a mile In that af- fair Wildair had travelled the distance
 
 Gladiator had never come within sec onds of such an achievement.
 ODDS
 "But when the odds opened the books laid 2La to I against Wildair and only to 10 against Gladiator.
 The public, before the odds were posted, figured that Wildair was the better horse. But as soon as the odds were up 1t decided that the bookmak CTS must know something--that Wild air either was in bad shape or that it was all rigged for Gladiator to win. Anyway. the public backed Gladiator at g to 10. Only~a few scattering bets were placed on Wfldair by that part of the public which refused to be deceived by the false odds. Wildair won the race-beating Gladiator three or four lengths and could have made it ten had his rider so wished.
 The horses in that contest ran true to form The public had doped out ths form correctly but permitted itself tv be tricked by false odds just as the layers had hoped The bookmakers knew that Wildair was the better horse They knew that if they made Wildair the favorite they would b's swamped with bets and would sustain the loss of a big bundle of money. So they bunked the public by installing Gladiator as the favorite.
 ''If a fellow goes to the race track with a few horseshoes in his pockets. together with a bunch of four-leal and bundle of rabbits feet. he might succeed in beating the books 1t is almost foregone conclusion thas race track betting in the fact of the present. clique is suicidal.