Clays Farewell to Imp, Daily Racing Form, 1900-06-10

article


view raw text

- j 1 t r a 1 | | 1 3 3 f j r j , 1 f a i f e i- , I • I y I „ " s t g 8 f a a ■ in CLAYS FAREWELL TO IMI*. The mite of Senegambian humanity known as P. Clay will not ride the thundercloud mare Imp again in all his life, unless he gets her out of the stable in the night and scurries off with her across the landscape. P. Clay, who became known to fame through his ability to sit still and slumber, and not wake up the sleepy mare, has been discharged. _ It all came about through the little black devils in-3 ability to know when he had a good thing. A day or two before the race in which Jean Beraud sailed under the wire just ahead of the amazing dusky apparition from Chillicothe, trainer Brossman had P. Clay hoisted into the saddle for the purpose of working out the racer for the Beraud contest. He instructed the diminutive jockey to ride her in certain time and to watch closely for signals in order to regulate the pace, P. Clay had learned of a deal between Mr. Brossman and Mr. Featherstone. under which jockey OConnor was to ride Imp whenever Mr. Featherstone had no horse of his own in the impending race. This information was as the hard contact of gravel and cinders to the soul of P. Clay, and he determined to get even with his employer then and there. As he took Imp out for her trial there was a look of settled determination upon his monkey-1 ish little face, and when he started off it was with the intention of pulling up Imp at the end of the journey "all out." In pursuit of this aim, he sent the ebony mare along over the track as fast as she had ever moved underneath him, urging her at every stride and paying not the slightest attention to the frantically waving handkerchief which was intended to induce him to slow up. Mr. Brossman at first thought some mistake had been made, and that his somnolent equine prodigy was running away with her rider. But the attitude of the jockey, as he bent over, sending Imp along at the top of her speed, soon convinced him to the contrary. Mr. Brossman gritted his teeth a good deal during the rest of the journey and when the jockey with a grin of satisfaction, slipped out of the saddle after it was over, he was promptly, energetically and potentially "fired." Thus it happens that the sleepy mare from out of the west, and the negro midget who in the past has ridden with her to victory upon numerous occasions, will consort no more from this time out. Thus, too, perhaps, it has occurred that Imp has succumbed to Jean Beraud, for if she had not received the gruelling bestowed by P. Clay, there might possibly— just possibly— have been a different ending to Tuesdays splendid contest between Mr. Whitneys noble horse and Harness k Brossmans sensational mare.— Morning Tele-a graph.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1900061001/drf1900061001_1_3
Local Identifier: drf1900061001_1_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800