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DAILY RACING FORM AND GAMBLING. The Chicago Record-Herald, a morning newspaper, notoriously bitterly hostile to racing and betting on races anil at times unscrupulously untruthful in its assertions in that connection, in its issue of Friday alleged that a certain handbook man had "welched" in refusing to pay the correct price against a horse named Gronesque, which won a race at Fort Erie Wednesday afternoon. At the track it had opened at 20 to 1 in the betting and been backed down to 0 to 1 at the close. But in its attack on the handbook man the newspaper mendaciously and cunningly implied that the horse had won at 20 to 1, saying: "When the result came over the ticker that the good thing had won at the juicy odds of 20 to 1, the cries of the fortunate bettors reached the ears of the leader of the pack. The next day the Racing Form, the dope sheet of the gambling fraternity, announced that the horse had opened at 20 to 1, hut that it had been backed down to 0 to 1, which was the closing Odds." Then followed the assertion that the notorious handbook man had "welched," presumably in refusing to pay 20 to 1, which probably was true so far as the price was concerned. In respect to tin? doings of handbook men and betting men, Daily Racing Form lias no concern. It Is tdmply a daily newspaper devoted to the one topic of running racing and in greater detail publishes each day those records of the tracks which the Record-Herald publishes also, but in lesser detail and with less regard to accuracy. To characterize Daily Racing Form as the "dope sheet of the gambling fraternity," is malicious, untruthful and unwarranted. If there Is a newspaper published in Chicago that is cordially disliked by. the cadcrsiu handbooklng, it is Dally Racing Form. It is the unvarying policy of tills newspaper to describe racing and all of its ndjuncts witli the most painstaking care to be accurate in cjich and every particular. In respect to odds, it publishes the prices laid at the track. The handbook men do not wisli to pay track prices. It is their desire to pay as much less as their victims will stand. At this time their "shaded" odds are published as a paid advertisement each day t In another Chicago newspaper. These are the so-called ticker prices. Because this newspaper daily shows the prices actually laid at the various tracks it is to them a much disliked obstacle in their path to underpaying their patrons and a protection, to the1 host of men who bet on races now and then. It is of no moment to this newspaper whether a horse wins at 100 to 1 or at 1 to 100. lint it is of moment and a certainty that Dally Racing Form lias always published and always will publish such matters accurately. That is its business. If the other newspaper referred to was as scrupulously regardful for truth in its publications, it would wield more influence in this big cosmopolitan community.
