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NIGHT RIDERS BUSY IN THE EAST. Two Men Apprehended By the Pinkertons in Act of Unfitting Ostend for Yesterdays Race, New York, September fi. An audacious attempt to perpetrate a racing fraud was frustrated at 1:30 oclock this morning. Detectives employed by the Jockey Club, discovered that the two-year-old. Ostend, owned by W. S. House, had been taken out of his stall and was being ridden mauy miles around the training track in the darkness for the obvious reason of rendering him physically unlit for the race In which lie was entered to start today. Ostend. with an unbeaten record since he came east, would have, been a hot favorite today. John Strobel and Arthur Thomas, the men who had taken the horse out of the stall, were placed under arrest and were held in lxmds of Q0 each at the Ixmg Island police station, charged with grand larceny. Thomas was iu Canada the past summer and was suspected, said Captain Duliaine of the Pinkerton force, of getting away witli a similar scheme there. When he arrived at Sheepshead Bay last week, he was immediately placed under surveillance. That was how he came to bo caught. Strobel was formerly an employe of U. F. Carman. It would not he hard for a stranger to get to Mr. Houses stable at night. For a man who has found his bread and butter in one way or another around the race tracks for years, it is the easiest thing ; in tlie world. It was a few minutes before 1 oclock this morning when two men with a cloaked lantern made their way to the stall where Ostend was kept. The stable boys wlfb watch the thoroughbreds were asleep In a house not fifteen feet away. Ostend stood in a box stall, the door to which was unlocked. One of the men held the lantern while the other adjusted a halter and a saddle taken from another stable. Then they took the liniment bandages from the colts legs and adjusted galloping bandages. They knew all about horses, these men, but they missed an all-important thing in the consummation of their scheme, which was that even while Jhey adjusted the bandages by the dim light of the lantern. Captain Duhaine. with two subordinates, Kiefer ami Myers, were within earshot. The detectives had been tipped off. The smaller or the two men was hoisted Into the saddle. Ostend was led to the track, his rider gave him his head and the colt was off in the darkness at a hard gallop. There was just enough moonlight for the rider to keep the colt clear of the fence at the turns. He did not run Ostend into a state of complete exhaustion. He knew better, for in that case the trick would have been discovered. He breezed the young animal enough to make him lose the second race just as surely as if he had hamstrung him. A few nights -ago fhe stall where R. F. Carmans Aeroltat is kept had lieen entered. Stalled with Acrobat is a goat, put there for company and to keep him quiet. Acrobat would probably have been treated to the same exercise as was Ostend. but tlie goat bleated so loudly that tlie intruders took to their heels. G. M. Odom also reported a few davs ago that his place liad been visited bv the night riders and that his filly. Foille Lew. was the victim. The fillv. which had been put away in the pink of condition Friday night, showed such evident signs of weakness and ill treatment the next morning that Odom decided to withdraw her from the race in which she was entered that day. and communicated his suspicious to the authorities. Schuyler Parsons, president of tlie Coney Island Jockey Club, said that he was overjoyed to know that the miscreants had ltcen apprehended, and that he felt ten years younger for it. "They will lie prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." he said, "and in future such things will not be possible on tills track."
