“TONS OF MONEY”

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11652, 17 October 1923, Page 8

“TONS OF MONEY”

LESLIE HENSON’S HORSE LINCOLNSHIRE DEBACLE. AN APPROPRIATE EXIT. “I suppose it’s appropriate that a comedian should have the most comic horse in the world.” Thus Mr Leslie Henson, discussing the severance of his association with Tons of Money, the famous Epsom-trained Lincolnshire Handicap candidate, which was backed from 500 to 1 to “sixties” after a sensational trial, and ran nowhere—a performance which he has repeated with unfailing regularity ever since. “Our lease of the horse is up,” Mr Henson went on, “and he has been returned to his owner, but I shall always have a bit on him whenever and wherever he runs, because he must win one of these days. “Has my experience with Tons of Money cured me of my ambition to be an owner? Certainly not. That horse has made history. I’ve indulged in more ‘back-chat’ In London streets as the result of my association with the horse than on the stage, and have made more new friends than I've ever made on the stage. “Only yesterday I was driving my car down the Haymarket when a policeman stopped me. “ ‘Good morning, Mr Henson,’ he said, ‘That's a nice car, but you won’t keep it long if you got any more horses like Tons of Money.’ “Down at Epsom, on Derby Day, 1 was standing in the ring trying to make up my mind what I should back. A bookmaker called out: ‘Leslie, I’ll buy Tons of Money whenever you wan t to sell him.’ “ ‘What for?’ I asked. “ ‘To pull my old mother about,’ he said; ‘she’s getting on a bit now.’ “But, seriously, it’s extraordinary how kind the public have been to me over that horse. They’ve no reason to bo, because they’ve lost money each time he has run, and they lost thousands over him on the Lincoln. “I shall never forget how they laughed in the theatre when I appeared a few hours after the Lincolnshire result. I had one or two lines that were rather to the point. 'Tell him I’m hoarse,’ I had to say, bind can’t speak.’ The shouts of laughter that went up drowned everything. THROUGH HIS FENCES. “You know,” continued Mr Henson, “if it hadn’t been for my partner, Tom Walls, I’d never have leased the horse. When we got him we tried him first at hurdling. He never went over a fence in his life, even when he won, but always right through it. “He barked his knees and took all the skin off himself, but even then lie was always up with the rest of the string, so we thought he might do something on the flat. “He did. But it wasn’t just what we expected. I shall never forget that trial at Foxhill. After he beat Clochnaben by fifteen lengths we thought we had got something—we thought we had a horse—but ho hardly ran up to his trial, and he has never run up to it since. “He made his last appearance in onr colours at Folkestone a fortnight ago. There were three runners, and he finished third—an appropriate exit! VISIONS OF FORTUNE. “There’s one thing I would like to say. We didn’t run Tons of Money as a ‘stunt,’ or as an advertisement for the play. The play needed no advertisement, and was an established suooess long before the horse came into our hands. “We really thought we were going to make our fortunes, and I personally had the biggest bet on the horse I ever had or am likely to have. If it had won I would have collected about £SOOO from the bookmakers and my wife £2OOO. “We had some money on at 500 to 1, and averaged about 60 to 1. If it had won, I am sure it would have taken more money out of the ring than any horse for generations. I was so certain it would win that I never laid off a penny, although I could have made about £BOO if 1 had. “But, as I have said, I have no regrets. Tons of Money will win some day, and when he does I shall be ‘on’ him. He cost us a bit for bets and for his keep, but although he’s hardly a Mumfaz Mahal he has compensated us in lots of other ways—chiefly in making known to us a. big new public we are never brought into contact with on the stage.”