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JOHN W. GATES DARING TURF COUPS. Greatest of All Was Successfully Engineered in England on Royal Flush. In the death of John W. Gates there has passed away the last, the most picturesque and spectacular of plungers on the American turf. He was unique in that with him the wagering of vast sums on the races was but one of the incidents of his days work perhaps the least. There was Wall street in the mornings and until three oclock, the race courses in the later afternoon, whist or faro in the evenings all of them entered into with a zest and buoyancy that might indicate that in noue was the purpose anything other than recreation. Other plungers on the turf there were who at times equaled in volume the speculation indulged in by Mr. Gates, hut with them betting was their whole existence. There was "Plunger" Walton, for example, who made of wagering a business; there was "Mike" Dwyer, who had his whole being in horses and in racing; there was Riley Grannan, whose passion for gambling was so great that he frequently had no bank account, carrying about with him fortunes in cash that he might always be ready for a hazard, and there was "Pittsburg Phil." who organized a corps of assistants and through them endeavored to reduce horse racing to an exact science. These men were widely different in manner, if not in purpose, from Gates. With them racing and tho betting end In particular was their sole aim. Their fortunes were wholly tied up in it or dependent upon it. His business was apart from the turf, though he brought to his transactions on the turf the same shrewd Judgment that had made him successful elsewhere. In the fortunes which he won and lost, and then regained, it would be most difiicult, if not impossible to balance up that section of bis profit and loss account which dealt with racing. His most daring and equally his most successful coup upon the turf was made in England. He, with John A. Drake, in 1S90, planned an invasion of the English turf. They took over a stable of American horses, with Enoch Wlshard for trainer and Lester Rein and Johnny Reiff for jockeys. Ail their stable hands, too. exercise boys and rubbers, were American. Wishard at one time had been the partner of John .7. McCafforty. and sprang into fame both as a trainer and a manipulator when the firm won nearly 00,000 over the victory of Queenle Trowbridge at the new Monmouth Park course in 1S90. Compared with Wishard, a deaf mute would be a riot of conversation and confidence. Wishard would talk on anything in the world except horses and he could talk well on almost any subject. He had and still has in his home in Flatbush a library that attests good taste in literature, but you would search in -vain for any book therein relating to the horse. The only subject on which Wishard was not posted Was the theater, and that was because he could not be up until midnight and astir again with the dawn. The Reiff boys lived with him, and grew up as he wished thoy should. They were perfect horsemen, but extremely reticent. No better combination for the carrying out of a coup could have been assembled. Wishard was to train and plan and Gates and Drake were to see that the plans, if successful, were profitable. They went over in the autumn of 1S99 that their horses might be acclimated for the campaign of 1900. While they were awaiting the coming of the season, Wishard was not satisfied with the condition of his horses or with some of the weights assigned. He decided to buy a fair handicap horse and take chances on improving him. He was not interfered with and purchased the Irish-bred horse Royal Flush, then six years old, by Favo out of Flush. He was sound, and had been campaigned with some success by his previous owner. It was decided to point him for the famous Stewards Cup, which -was to be run at Goodwood on July 31 and into which he previously had been pitchforked at 7 stone 13 pounds, or 111 pounds. In the same race was Americnw, owned by Richard Croker. Americus had raced with distinguished success in this country as Rey del Carrcres and had been purchased by Mr. Croker from "Lucky" Baldwin. Americus was the favorite. A week or so before the race Gates sent a substantial commission on Americus. Gates later said the commission was in the nature of a hedge. His critics said it was a "rigging" of the market. There is now no reason to doubt that Gates was truthful in his statement, but also that his act had the natural result of raising the price on Royal Flush for, although the horse ran in the name and colors of J. A. Drake, it was known that Gates, if not an actual partner, was in possession of every fact that Drake knew. The Stewards Cup, though only over the six-furlongs distance, was at that- time, and for many years before, one of the big betting races in England. Future books of practically astounding value were made on it. Commissions running into the thousands of pounds were accepted. Gates organized the preliminaries to the coup with that rare skill in guarding against premature disclosure that had made him famous in Wall street. On the Tuesday before the running of the race he had commissioners at a certain hour present wagers on Royal Flush in every bookmakers establishment, not only in every big city in England, but also in Belgium, where, perhaps, there is as much ante-post betting done as there is in England itself. These wagers were put down simultaneously the bulk of them in London and in Antwerp. They cut the price of Royal Flush from CG to 1 to 11 to 2, with the money averaging a trille better than 25 to 1. The bookmakers, though they all felt the commission to be a tremendous one, were anxious to accommodate Mr. Gates, and accepted what was offered. Few bookmakers can resist the temptation of taking ready money. Besides, each of them felt he could "lay off" some of his commission with his brother pencilers. To their amazement they discovered there was no refuge. Everybody all over England had been loaded to the gunwales with the money simultaneously. Antwerp houses were appealed to and they were filled. They were seeking relief themselves. Then it dawned on them that they were hooked up for the biggest ready money coup that the British turf ever had known. Experts in the big betting clubs sat down to figuring and, when on the night before the running of the race the returns had come in, it was found that the Gates commission alone would not foot up less than 00,000, and might go to ,000. That put all the betting records of the centuries into the discard. It exceeded by nearly a quarter of a million dollars the loss sustained by the spendthrift. Lord Hastings, when Henry Chapin, who had sworn to ruin him, won the Derby with Hermit. Of course there could be no such thing as welching, but the wall was heard from Tattersalls to John o Groats House. On the afternoon of the race there was a wild but futile attempt to round out their books by offering special inducements against the other horses, but the public would have none of it. The race was not even interesting as a contest. Johnny Reiff on Royal Flush won by sixth lengths from Americus, ridden by Lester Reiff, who was three parts of a length in front of Elopement, ridden by another American jockey, Rigby. The coup had been successful, but there was a frowning in the ring and a frowning in the stewards stand that showed how deeply the iron had struck. One of the stewards, who was nameless in the English papers, but who was generally supposed to be Lord Durham, petulantly remarked as the horses went past the finish post that "if he had his way he would rule off any man that stood to win 50,-000 on any race." When Gates was told of this at a dinner party in the Cecil that night by a reporter ho was quoted as saying that his lordship must have been misunderstood, and that what he undoubtedly meant was that any man who had such a horse as could win such a race easily and only stood to win a quarter of a million on him was cither an imbecile or a piker, both of which would be undesirable patrons of the English turf. The Royal Flush episode concluded any large wagering on futures in England. Probably no one except his son, Charlie Gates, and his friends and partners, John A. Drake and Ortson C. Wells, knew exactly how much money tho winning of the Stewards Cup by Royal Flush netted Gates, but after he had given 0,000 to the trainer, Wishard, 0,000 to Johnny Reiff and was a most generous Lord Bountiful to everyone connected with the stable, he told his friends on more than one occasion that after paying all expenses of the trip he returned with more than ,000 British money to this country a sum which he immediately sent into the market in anticipation of the re-election of President McKinley. After his coup Mr. Gates was not popular with the English racing folks. There were insinuations that stimulants had been administered to some of the horses in the stable insinuations that had not a tittle of evidence to sustain them but Gates did not like the harrying and he returned to this country. He had harvested his crop, and the aftermath did not appeal to him. Up to this time he had not been particularly prominent on the turf. In fact, it was not until two years later that he liecame one of the spectacular figures on. the American turf. In 1902 the Drake stable contained two horses that were destined to play an important part in the stakes of the year. One of these was a three-year-old Wyeth, that later won the American Derby from Lucien Appleby. The other was Savable, a two-year-old, that in one of tho most sensational Futurities beat Lord of the Vale by the shortest of heads. Gates had a big wager on Wyeth, but he won practically nothing on Savable, not caring for the horse as an individual. The excitement of betting, the quick exchange of money, the enthusiasm of the minute or so when fate was held in the balance, the openness of it all. appealed to Gates. Then, too, he had triumphed iu England, beaten the gainu iu its owu home, won the American Derby and the Futurity, and so lid went at it with a zest that was amazing. Of course, he did not daily bet the huge sums ascribed to him, but he never was a piker. A wager of ,000 was not at all unusual, nor was one of 5,000 cxtraor ilinary, but he was not an indiscriminate bettor. Ho accepted the judgment of an owner or trainer in whom ho had confidence precisely as he won 11 the report of an expert that he had sent out for a judgment on a railroad, a mine or a mill. Having got that report or that judgment, he went ahead. He played information almost exclusively, and as he was generous in his rewards he usually obtained the best. He detested going Into the ring personally. Sometimes he bet ready money through agents in the ring, thus affording no clew as to the source whence it came, but ordinarily he made his own wagers. As a rule he wagered with Richard C. Doggett, one of tin clubhouse commissioners, or with John Walters the two most daring and wealthy of all the set that accepted wagers from the high-rolling constituency. Gates seemed to find particular enjoyment in dealing with Doggett. There could not possibly be two men more widely different In stature and "temperament than these two. Doggett, a little fellow, not much more than five feet in height, once a lightweight jockey for the Oneck Stable, cold in demeanor, sparing of speech, there could scarce ho two more directly opposite. Gates was big, hustling, breezy, talking in superlatives. And yet Gates liked to wager with Doggett. It may have been, that the common quality of gamcness in both was what attracted. Be that as it may. Gates liked to deal with him. and it was oiie of the features of the days when the AVall street man "unbelted" himself to bear him and Doggett. "The price against Roselien?" "Even money, Mr. Gates," Doggett might answer. "For 5.0007" Gates would query. "All right, sir." And then, turning to his clerk. Doggett would say, "Mr. Gates, 5,000 even on Roseben." And then to Mr. Gates, "Will there be anything more on this race, sir?" And the 5,000 would go. If Doggett didnt want to accept all of it as a personal wager he would lay it off among other pencilers, frequently at a profit, so he won, even though Gates did. Reports differ as to how much money Gates and Drake took out of the ring at Morris Park on the day that Roseben won that maiden race, but it is conceded that it was little short of 00,000. It might have been more had the stable had the confidence in Roseben - that Roseben deserved. Gates had made all arrangements for the "killing," but Roseben got a tritte "oft his feed" within twenty-four hours of the race, and a stable companion, Rudabeck, was started to aid him, both horses being coupled. Roseben won easily. Gates, while a bit bizarre, always was natural, and at Saratoga he particularly shone. He bet in the most sensational way, had the fastest automobiles, gave the finest luncheons In the clubhouse and the most elaborate dinners at tho lake, and was by far the most spectacular player at Canlields when it was at its zenith. Sporting and fashionable Saratoga went to bed when he "cashed In." and they awoke while he was breakfasting. New York Press.
