view raw text
"LUCKY" BALDWIN AND HIS CAREER. Beqan Racinq by Skinninq a Couple ofChi-caqo Sharks — An Interestinq Story. As a feature of its aportiag section, the San i Francisco Chronicle lias this winter published in each i Sunday edition a eartOOB and chatty story about some person who figured prominently in the world of racing. Last Sunday the subject was K. .1. "Lucky" BaMarla. Alter telling of Baldwini birth in Ohio, the removal Of the family to Indiana and struggles ; atainst the Indians, the interviewer tells the story of Baldwins connection with the turf in this i manner: • "I have had horses ever since I was eighteen years old." said Mr. Baldwin. "The firs! race T was ever interested in? Let me see. Ill have to tell you l a story to explain that. We were living in Indiana i" at the time. I had a pretty fair sort, of a horse and he could go some. One day a couple of fellows tress Chicago drove up and asked for food. They had 1 a nag that looked as if he had seen his l est days i ali in the time of the Ark and the flappings were rot much better. "finally they wanted to see what we had in the 1 way of horses and sugge ted a race. That, suited 1 me. They bet everything but the clothes on their t backs. I rede my own horse and won. They came way out there to play me for a sucker. l ut all the seme 1 had to stake them to enough to get them back home. "And Baldwin actually chuckled as be thought of the discomfiture of those seasoned experts in the game of gratt who were prepared to fleece an innocent Indiana lauib out of house and home. There I was the atari at his link the element that gave ■ him his name. "Racine, Wis., saw I. inky for a brief time, while he ran a general meiehandise store and sold I knitting needles to the old ladies arid fanning tools ; and plug cut tobacco to the men. But the gold fever got him in its grasp, and as he had a brother who was picking up a few shekels in California, he just t had to come and see for himself. It was on August 10. ] *5o. to be exact, that he landed in San Francisco. He had a bit of money at t the time and started iu the hotel business, leople had to eat, and Baldwin was shrewd enough to see e hi* opening. Alter two weeks he bold out for ,ooo, , ■ a as * a li d li t t is c in a a: s so j in v , , , , , , ! i i ; i l i" 1 i 1 1 t and since then he has bail a busy old life of it. di "How did you get the name of Lucky? tl And these was no hesitation in Baldwins manner Si he refilled: "The Chronicle gave me that name I long time ago. If you want to know about th *-e s] mining deals look in Bancrofts history." "i But we were looking for anything bill staid and .[ dried history. We wauled the nooks in Baldwins l* life, the little stories that Blight slip bv the his U 1 1 torian and still make interesting reading. ., The Santa Anita ranch was the turning point in if tin history of Baldwin, so far as the racing world Is p concerned. He acquired that properly in southern j, California for 00,000. "I might have bad it for much leas, he observed with a touch of regret in his voice. "I bought it 1ST t. bill a few years before that I could have " in had it for 3,000. Hilton, the man who owned 11 ■ before that, took the place for an old debt of 1907.sh00, and they thought that be was gelling the worst of " it." Baldwin miglil aeret have come to be the racing " man that he was but for an eastern dip that he 1 took one saaMnei . " of Arrayed in tine parole, he went to Saratoga with J friend named Maguire. Crinstoad was running a the lime and Baldwin look a fancy to Ins chances. nnieti of a fancy that he bought him in he auc- k tioii pools. There were no IwMiks Blade on the races " those days. if jroa liked the chance of a horse, " you bid and the highest bidder was entitled to pier • the horse he thought would win. Grin-lead won and I Baldwin won so much money that he bought him. P He turned the same trick with Bather fotd. "Then I had to start a racing stable." said Bald- win. "I didnt expect to do anything of the kind. is but I was jusf thrown into it. We had some big laces in California in those days, races that were run in four mile heals. I remember one race at Ocean Hol-o. 1 had Stevens, owned by Treat, won. but the race was not finished until after night." Baldwin didnt stop with racing in California. He o paid for cms at |1,800 a car and for stable boys at 1 25 a piece for the trip and invaded the east. Last- I era turf writers spoke disparingly of the California plugs. After Baldwin had won the American Derby lour times -with Kinporor of Norfolk, Key el Santa 1 .ihIi. Silver Ilouii .mil Vohuite; after he had gone to Saratoga, Where he annexed fifteen stakes out of i twenty-five in which lie raced, the east changed its t opinion. Then we asked him about the biggest bet l he ever won. Baldwin hasnt got the expansion habit of "White Hat" McCjrty, but he made enough i on one race to satisfy most mortals. "It wa* a cup race." be said, "in which Mollie ■, Mccarty was entered. There was a celebrated Kentucky mare iu the race, but we knew what Mollie could do. and we put up just ,700 to win $«o.OOO. -And I warn that bet. Bud Doble won some money j on that same race. "There was once that I was racing a stable at Sheepehead Kay. with McClelland as trainer, while I was persoaafiy at. LonisriBe. One day McClelland won live out of si races and I won two out of five, j Then I wired McClelland and asked him why he ] didnt win all six. He thought I meant it and was 1 telling everybody, what an unreasonable fellow I was." In Isaac Murphy Baldwin bad one of the l est I Jockeys of the country. Baldwin declares that Murphy was one of the best judges of pace that i lie ever saw. Murphy was paid 0,000 a season for j riding the black Maltese cress to victory, and with him "Lucky" admits that he won over 40,000 in ] purses and stakes. "What do you think was the best racer you ever j had in your stable?" "Kinpcor of Norfolk. I bought him as a two-year-old lor 02,000 and in his three-year-old form he WOB two Derbys for me. Sinaloa was probably the beat racer that I ever bred. She ran a mile and a quarter at Long Branch with 117 panaris up in 2: 4, and was the fastest mare that I ever owned. What have 1 won on the track? Thats hard to say. for I never counted it up. Down at the reach I have shoes of winners of big slakes in a cans and I guess all told the amount will run up over ,400,090." Baldwin now has four racing stables — one at Emeryville, one at. Ascot and two at the ranch, but he announces that he will sell off his racers when i the new track is opened. "I will hare an auction the first day of the meet ing." he said, "and sell all my youngsters. I [ never believed that a man interested in a track or . a bookmaker should run his own horses on the ! track. Thats wiiy I will have the sale." "And the four mile races, iu heats," I asked. "Will there be any more of them?" "Not as long as there are bookmakers." declared I Baldwin, with more than usual insistence. "The books want quick action. They are not looking for [ the sport, hut for the money." And so we left him. There are many who think that Baldwin has run his last race, but "Lucky" isnt one of them.
