"RUNNING IT OFF."

Press, Volume L, Issue 8476, 6 May 1893, Page 3

"RUNNING IT OFF."

There are a good many backers still frequenting race meetings who remember " Ready-Money Robiusoii. " It was in the Hastings plungiug era that he came to the fore, and fur -tome time had marvellous "luck. He always backed favourites ; the hotter the fuvourite the better he liked ib ; aud for a year or bwo he prospered. It was quite an exhilarating sight to see him pull oub a handful of bunk notes, and lay Steel or some other bookmaker of that period two monkeys to one on. He had his day, however, and passed away like many other- plungers. Though I can remember Robinson and his doings, I' never knew anything about hi- private life. There was, however, some time ago —though much nearer the present time than the Robinson epoch—a young ready- . money bettor of the same type, who, if his name is not so well known, hadbhcluek out of the fire if not unsinged, at -ail events without being seriously burnt, and of whoae history, both in the ring and out of it, 1 knew a good deal. Bub ie was nob till about a year ago that I learned from his own lips the up. and downs of his career, and the motive tor which he gambled. There were some Yeomanry races on in Hertfordshire, which, as I wus stopping in the neighbourhood, I attended. There was a middle-sized, smooth-shaven man in thermg a whom I seemed bo recognise, withoub being able to identify. Presently, however, the bell rang to clear the course, and I saw him approich a well-knowu bookmaker, and heard him say,

" What price the favourite ?" " Take your 6ix to' four, sir 1"

"All right, thirty to twenty," producing three new teu pound notes. Then I knew him directly. 'His horse won, and as he was drawing his money I said,

" Still at the old game, Symes; I thought you had left It for good ?" * He started round, bub recognised mc at once. "God bless mc!" he said, "I am awfully pleased bo see you. Iso seldom go racing now, that it's a pleasure to meet uny one of those I used to know. How have you been all this time? I live close by here, come and have a bit of dinner with mc after the races."

I did not quite see ray way to this at drab, but ho over persuaded mc, and an excellent small dinner he {fave mc. "My wife's away on a visit to her people," he said as we sab smoking in the dining room, "so there is nothing to disturb us. ' Fill your glass and pass the decant er."

We chatted over old racing reminiscences, till at length be said, " I will tell you two things if you like, which I think you don't know ; one of them induced mc to bet heavily, aud the other made mc give it- up. " When my father died I was a clerk in a brewery with a screw of about eighty pounds a year, and a mother to keep ouc of ib. If I stayed on there was a prospect of my getting, eventually perhaps, two hundred' and fifty a year, but I was ambitious, and had always an idea I could make money racing. I used to bet iv a small way, in half crowns and dollars, and generally put the money on with a man who frequented a large public house near where I lived. He was but bhe agenb of another and bigger ready-money bookie, whose acquaintance after a little I made. My luck was very good, but this man would put ib dowu to my acumen. He went to all the big meetings himself, and declared that not one of his clients was as good a judge as I was, and that it waa lucky for him I ooly bet low. "One winter his clerk died, and to show he mesnb what he said, he offered mc the vacant post. •' I took twenty-four hours to think of it, and then, greatly to my mother's horror, accepted. *'-1 filled that berth for over three years, and to show what good information my boss had, at the end of that time I had a thousand pounds to my credit ab bhe bank —principally made by backing 'em—with other men of course. I was a fool to chuck it up, but I had a fancy I could do better still, and bo tell bhe truth, like a fool, wanted to be rid of the clerking business. " I soon found out my mistake, for at the end of my first year as a backer, pure and simple, I had lost nearly half my capital, in spite of one or two long odd tips having come off. This 1 felt would never do, aud I had serious thoughts of either mounting the satchel and opening a small ready-money book, or chucking the whole business up. However, something happened which altered u»y plans. One day coming back from Sundown, a gentlemanly young fellow got into conversation with mc, he had had a bad day, and expressed his opiuion that backing other people's horses was a delusion and a snare. "The only chance there is against the fielders," he said, '* is to be an owner, and never back anything except your own horses,'

" I had come pretty nearly to the same conclusion, and totd him so; we went ou chatting till the train arrived at Waterloo uud then agreed to dine together. At dinner, after I had told him of my experiences, he became thoughtful for a bit, then after a while he said, " I tell yo.u what it is, you have more experience In racing than I have; suppose we join together, I will buy two or three horses to start with, you shall have the mauagementship of them, and do the commission aud that sort of thing. Of course you will Know as much abcub them as I shall, and ab no outlay." j "I jumped at this, and so it was arranged, there and then. I happened to know a fellow who owned one or two useful horses, and being jusb aboub broke, only too glad to sell them. My new* part*j

ner, on my recommendation, bought these, In ™T Rt Bmt _? l b «gi-B Wwe started. Hf» W ~i u*a e _ do thßt tvve,vc months later we had eighteen horses of one kind £v?,!i 0 -» , m lrfcl «»»»«. some of them his absolutely, some owned between v«, and ~°T? r -" cc "-y ovvn exciusivw pr..pertv. *«.ii u . ,,f0 , rtu ''ately about' bis lime we both ieu in love, but in dfff.rent ways. My partner s mamorafa was satisfied as long as he spent any amount of money on her and she had her brougham and house in &t. John s Wood. My dream was to make a sufficient pile to retire from rac'ug on and settle down, marry, and live on a comfortable fi*ed Income. He to meet the heavy expenses incurred oy his establishment, and I the quicker to realise my dream, both plunged heavily, but always on our own horses, and always in ready money. I don't know why we did the otner, but we had commenced that way when unknown, and kept on with it. For -early three years we had first class luck. I can say without boasting that 1 placed our horses well. I had lived comfortably and had saved over twenty thousand pounds, and my partner had won even more, ouly he had spent his as soon as got.

-.hen the luck changed and we lost heavily. At lenorth things, particularly for my friend, began to look very blue. One Sunday he came to my house, and said, "Look here,Symes, something must be done, and that at once, or 1 can't keep going. We must pull out some hor,e and have a plunge ; what is it to be?" " I had been thinking the same thing myself so had not to keep him wailing for a reply.

" 4 There is Fredegonde,' I said, • entered for the big handicap at W . She has come on very much of late, and can be got fit by the day. I had thought of keeping her for the Cambridgeshire, but if affairs are so bad with you, we had better go for a smaller race. There is sure to be a good rfug, and it ought to be a certainty. There is the two year-old Swiss Sergeant, which we tried smart, also fit to run. We can take him there too, and if by any chance the big race does not come off, we can put him in a selling race, and get our money back.'

"He agreed bo this, and I wrote off to tbe trainer on the subject at once. 0:i the day of the race I was painfully nervous, and made up my mind, win or lose, to have no more of the game. "If I had only stopped six months ago, I thought I might have retired with a comfortable fortune.

" But you see I had been greedy, and trying to make my winnings up to thirty thousand, had managed bo bring them down to half that amount. S.ill my position was ever so much better than my partner's. _oid the knowledge of the fix he was iv made mc all the more shaky.

"I let the market seitle down before"l mada my appearance in the ring; and when I did, found, am I had hoped, that the mare was not fancied. I palled out a sheaf of hundred pound notes and began backing her in earnest. My parmer had given mc seven hundred to put on for him. all he could scrape together, and when I left off more than twice that amount had been gob on, aud our horse was first favourite. They were a iong time at the post, and we had full leisure as we stood together to realise our risk. At length there came a shout of 'They're offl' und up went our glasses. At the half distance there was a cry of ' The favourite's beat I' and my heart went down into my boots. But the mare struggled on gamely under the whip, and she and bwo others past the post so closely locked together that we could not tell which had won. Another moment cf awful suspense, und then two numbers went up alongside one auother. A dead heab between bwo, and our mare one of ttiem.

" Now came another period of anxiety. Our jockey told as his advice was to divide, if the other party would let us. The mare had sot well off, but seemed slightly outpaced. Doubtless the other side had heard the same report, for they would not hear of a division. So there was nothing tor it but to run it off after the last race. My partner, to whom a wiu meant salvation, would not hear of hedging. So in very shame I had to stand it out also. It was a tremendous close thing again ; but Fredegonde ran as gan.e as a pebble and won by a head. Thab night we rejoiced. Bub I had had enough of it. 1 sold my share of the homes, married my present wife, aud bought bhe house we are siti ing in. As long as I live, however, I shall nob forgeb the runuing off of that race." That was the end of Mr Symes'—the ready-money backer's—story.—A.X.X. in the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.