The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-08-13
In New York
BY PAUL HARRISON


 New York Nearly everybody who has plenty of what it takes, which is money and time. has gone to Saratoga Springs to look in on the roulette games and the races and the annual splurge of those who are called our best people.
 Those are all very edifying sights, but didn't get around to buying a ticket on the Cavanaugh Special, train which runs once year to deposit load of social ties, suckers, stooges, showfolk, spenders, speculators and such for the seasons opening at the spa. Instead I walked along Broadway and came upon stranded bang tail expert who told me about the mascots of the various racing sta bles.
 Not long ago the New Yorker Magazine had a piece about these mascots, and I read with interest of Cavalcade's companion. a small, white poodle: the lilly named Fervid that had bantam rooster for pal: Singing Woods devotion to an angora goat; and Beldame, nag that liked rab- bits, It turns out however. that in most cases there is no particu- lar affection between race horses and stable mascots: they regard each other with a sort of patient. barnyard tolerance.
 
 Combat Jinxcs
 But if the horses aren't super stitious, the trainers are. The lat ter introduce all kinds of beasts and fowl into the box stalls in the hope of warding off jinx. For example, the head mascot of Mrs Dodge Sloane's Brookmead Starle is terrier called Luck, and at- the poodle, is responsible for Cav derbilt Whitney's trainer. Tom Healy, claims he isn't bit su- perstitious except about such a foolhardy thing as allowing his picture to be snapped just before a race. He has two goats and two dogs, however. which he sends with the horses wherever they go.
 One man, a MT Denham, keeps four white mice in his stable and J. J. Reynolds cherishes cricket in a tiny cage. A cricket is the luckiest pet horseman can have he says; and he's glad that other horsemen don't appreciate this bit of pow-wow lore. J. Frederick Beyers trainer puts all his faith in raccoon mascot. To be sure, the stable hasn't had much luck but it's fortunes probably would be immeasureably worse without the coon.
 Although Singing Woods best friand ic ho t,,l,n fn En care of Mrs John Hay Whitney's horses attribute all the luck to an old German shepherd dog nam ed Bob. Another shepherd is mas cot of the Joseph E. Widener stable. The w. s. Kilmer horses are accompanied by burro, and by observing the cant of his ears the stable boys say they always can forecast victory or defeat for the day. F. Barry Ryan. youngest racing owner in America, has monkey that always losses tan trum whenever some unlucky wis itor comes to the stable.
 Touts Return
 Now that New York State has sanctioned race track betting. the touts are back with all their old tricks. You encounter them every where. Stand on a Broadway cor ner or sit in a hotel lobby. and even so much as glance at a news paper sporting page, and some fur tive-eyed fellow will be tugging at your sleeve and offering to sell sure-thing wager.
 Often they work in pairs. One vii lstrike up a conversation with a prospective victim and point out another fellow standing nearby Tout whispers: He gave me a winner the other day and clean ed up plenty" Pretty soon "Blitz" strolls by and the tout asks him for a tip on race. After some urging, and after accepting $50 each from the tout and the sucker for the information, the fake jock ey divulges the name of a horse in a certain race. The nag usually runs seventh.
 Simplest way of betting with other peoples money is for tout to recommend every horse in a race, each to different bettor. In return for the tip, each bettor places an extra $2 for his inform ant. All but one of them lose. of course, but to that one grateful sucker tie tout then goes and col lects part of the winnings. I've heard that one race-track sWindleI simplifies Identification of his vic tims by marking their coats with different colors of chalk.