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SOME REMARKABLE RACING DREAMS Thormanby Relates Somo Astonishing Tales of the Turf Occurring in England EnglandO O all forms of superstition by which sportsmen of the gambling sort are affected the most preva ¬ lent I think is the belief in dreams as prophetic of future events writes Thormanhy in the London Sportsman And it must he admitted that there is some ground for such holier for iu many cases wonderful tips have come from dreamland I have collected a few of these as samples and I have no doubt most readers could add to the list listAbout About a mouth before the Derby of 1S73 Mrs Peters the wife of the steward at a certain London club where a large Derby sweepstakes was made up every year dreamed that one of the members had sold his chaiice to her husband and that the horse won the race At breakfast next morning she told him her dream The steward who was very skep ¬ tical about such matters laughed at her but asked the name of the horse Doucaster she answered I saw it as plainly as I see this cup and saucer and the whole thing was so vivid that I am sure theres something in it Iooh pooh old girl Doneaster hasnt a chance replied her worscr half Ive backed the winner and his names Kaiser and you shall have a new bonnet put of the stakes stakesThe The lady shook her head and stuck to her text though she knew it was no use arguing A few flays before the great event came off one of the members of the club said to the steward I say Peters I sail on Monday for the east and I want to get rid of this ticket Everybody says the horse lias 110 chance and if you can get some one to give a guinea for it let me know Peters looked at the name on the ticket and read Doncaster Now whether he bethought him of his wifes dream and the peculiar coincidence influenced him or whether it was done in a spirit of pure speculation it wpuld he useless to inquire hut Mr Peters reply was All right sir and theres the guinea and if nobody will have it I will keep it not but what 1 feel sure that Kaiser will win winThe The ticket was at once transferred to him and lie actually offered It to several gentlemen who promptly refused it When the great day arrived and Mr James Merrys horse was declared the winner to the great astonishment and consternation of a good many people Mr Peters had the satisfac ¬ tion of pocketing lTO sovereigns Perhaps you wont poohpooh my dreams next time cried the missis exultiugly when he told her the good news newsThere There seems to have been something very pecu ¬ liar and ominous about this horse Doncaster for Mrs Peters was not the only person whose slum ¬ bers he invaded On the Sunday morning previous to the Derby the wife of a costermonger Timsou by name woke the partner of her bed by singing out lustily the boy in yuller wins the day Ned Tim son who had been bawling mackerel all the previ ¬ ous day and had been taking the hoarseness out of his throat the previous night with sundry pots of fourale wild at being aroused out of his refresh ing slumbers gave her a thump and told her to shut up When they were both awake he asked her yhat she meant by kicking up that row Then she told him that she had dreamed she was on Epsom Downs and had seen a jockey in yellow pass all the other horses and everybody shouted the hoy in yaller wins the day That you know Ned was a song my mother used to sing that shed heard some great actress sing when she was a girl If theres a jockey iu yaller Id put a bit on him if I was you Shut up your silly mug growled Ned who put as little confidence in dreams as did our friend the steward stewardBut But these skeptical gentlemen are sometimes not jtiite so skeptical as they would fain make be ¬ lieve and when Mr Edward Timson who was a lilt of a sporting man in his way saw the horses taking their preliminary canter and one of the jockeys dressed in yellow James Merrys colors he clapped all the money he had in his pocket thirty shillings upon the boy in yellow and pock ¬ eted forty yellow boys for his pluck It was the making of him he Ijpught a new horse and cart and christened the former Yellow Hoy while Sal you may be sure did not forget to exult abtmt her dream She became a celebrity of the neighbor ¬ hood and was regarded by her pals as a sort of Cas ¬ sandra as no doubt she was in some respects when she had imbibed too many halfquarterns of gin ginMy My next Doncustrian anecdote is not exactly a dnam story though its hero was a sleeping man it belongs rattier to that class of superstition which the Romans included under divination the fore ¬ shadowing of coming events by some chance inci ¬ dent or stray word A sporting man of my ac ¬ quaintance was traveling into Scotland by the Flying Scotchman and having fallen asleep was awakened by the guard shouting Doncaster Don caster Eli by jove he cried starting up and rub ¬ bing his eyes you dont say so has Merrys horse then really won wonThe The guard was so struck by the words that he related them to several people I should take It as a tip suggested one He caught at the idea put half a sovereign on the horse and made twenty twentyBut But not even yet have I finished with this won ¬ derful Doncaster and his lucky omens There was a commercial traveler named Ilamsdcn nephew of a wellknown trainer who though he had a great taste for racing never staked a farthing upon siny other event than the Derby but regularly every year put his fiver upon his fancy for the Blue Hi Land It so happened however in the contrariety of things in general that he was never able to pay a visit to the Downs on the great day as in that week his Dublin journey was always due His manner of selecting his horse was singularly origi ¬ nal he never took a tip never allowed his judg ¬ ment to be inlliicneed as far as putting on his monoy went by any sporting organ he appealed purely and simply to blind chance in this manner Ilk wrote out the names of all the horses that ran each upon a separate slip of paper rolled each up into a little i ellet then taking the lot up in his hand cast them with as much force as he was able against the wall of his room and backed the horse that relx unded farthest Though the ex ¬ periment had not been successful on the whole it was eminently so for the Derby of 1ST for the pellet he picked up had Doncaster inscribed upon uponAnother Another famous dream horse was Blue Gown The following story was related to me by a sport Jiig writer as a personal experience After that famous Derby was run I went off to finish the night at Crcmorne I had scarcely passed through the gates when I met a pal in the commercial Hue in verv high spirits who asked me to come and have a drink I have just landed a thou over Blue own he said and it is the queerest story you have ever lieard I fancied Roslcrucian and had a bit put on him when I dreamed the funniest dream You know Im in the hosiery line Well I was down at Manchester a few weeks back and one night 1 dreamed n lady came to me and said Mind I shall require a blue gown to match with the stockings you have given me Well I never take any notice of such things and certainly I never thought of connecting it with Hawleys horse Hang me if two nights afterwards I didnt dream precisely the same thing over again I began to think It rather singular hut still the coincidence never dawned upon me though 1 actually dreamed it n third time But it was now so very extraordinary lhat I mentioned the circumstance to a friend Its a tip for the Derby as sure as youre alive he cried at once May on all you know and Ill go In with you Then It seemed to come upon me all at once and I could not understand how I could have been fiuih a fool as not to see it before I didnt lose a moment in putting on Blue down every farthing I could scrape up and this showing a roll of bank notes is the result resultAbout About the same time a man named Lowry who had been a tout to Henry Padwlck was lying dan ¬ gerously 111 bis life being despaired of Look here my girl he said to his wife one morning get together all the money you can and put it on Blue Gown for thats the Derby winner for this year I mightnt live to see it but its a dead certainty as sure as you are here La Tim what makes you tliliik that inquired tbe wife Because its come to me in my sleep he an ¬ swered sweredShe She had the courage to follow his advice and though he was under the turf Iwfore the event came off she made a nice little sum by the tip to console her widowhood and give her a good chance for an ¬ other hushand The triple dream I have just mentioned had a parallel some years previously A man named Ooakely a chemist and tlruupiet at Stockbridge line night In the spring of 1845 dreamed that he Haw Pyrrhus the First win the Derby He was not a betting man so he could not understand what had put the horse into his head he was still more puzzled when he dreamed the same thing m the following night he was yet more as ¬ tounded when It returned on the third Being ac ¬ quainted with John Day who as everybody knows lived in the neighborhood he told him about this curious vision of the night I should back him was the worfhy trainers advice The chemist very wisely took It and made more by that tip in a day than he would have done by pills in a year yearFor For my next anecdote I must go as far back as 18 A provincial actor named Freeman very well known in bis time while performing In some country town had bis bcnelit lixcd for the Derby night In those days of small salaries the benelit was the actors main dependence to clear off debts stock him with clothes and prepare him for his next engagement ami the choice of a piece likely to prove the most attractive was a matter requiring the most careful attention and a source of much anxiety Mr Freeman on the present occasion found the task so difficult and was so worried by contlictlng ideas that he was almost ill One night his wife awoke him with Mini did you hear that No he said What 1 heard a voice say quite distinctly that if you imt up The Flying Dutchman for your bene ¬ fit youll have the biggest house of the season Good Lord cried Freeman I never thought of that piece and that is the name of the Derby favorite A splendid idea Ill do it if the horse were to win it would fill the house houseHe He lost no time in issuing the bills those in the town who had bet on the horse thinking it a lucky tip took tickets and when the news came that Flying Dutchman had won the Blue Riband numbers of people struck by the coinci ¬ dence flocked to the theater filling it from floor to ceiling and making it indeed as the mysterious voice had prognosticated the biggest house of the season
