view raw text
OLD-TIME FIGURES AT TATTESSALLS. There is magic in the sound of "Tattersallss King." for it is there that fortunes were formerly won and lost, with even greater rapidity than on the great altar of Mammon known to mortals as the Stock Exchange. Nowadays the "Betting Ring," however, is bilt a shadow of what it was in the palmy days of its existence, when there was no daily skirling press to act as "guide, philosopher and friend" to backers of horses. Palmy days those were indeed at the period ranging from the late "thirties" to the early "sixties" of last century. the only capital required by a buckling Ixookniakcr Im ing a" nntoltook and a pencil, and good luck at the start. In that long past era "futures" were the onlv races lx?t on away from the course, the genius "who invented starting-price betting having not yet arisen, and for a race like the Derby or the Chester Cup. every animal engaged had admirers, no Matte* how forlorn its chance. Often enough horses that had broken down, or died, weeks or even months lx»fore hand were supported by the public, and as in many cases they were never struck out. there was every opportunity for the keei ers of "list" houses t«i reap a rich harvest. No matter what won. they were well over round, the prices thev laid generally not In-ing regulated in market overt. There were, of course, many firms of good repute who laid fair prices, but ready-money "list" liet:ing i»aved the way to many abuses, and bolting houses, which did a roaring trade, were often found with the shutters up when the creditors arrived on the following day for the purpose of drawing their winnings. This, however, had little or nothing to do with the business conducted by bookmakers In the ring on the race course, where, then as now. a mans word was his bond, whether in the matter of wagers in silver or liets running into manr thousands of pounds. Let us now turn to consideration of some of the early fathers of the ring and bri-tly sketch their careers, their foibles, and in not a few BBSM their oddities. one of the best known of the members of the hookmaking fraternity in the earlier part of last century was •Crutch" Robinson, who for a | eriod of something like thirty years was one of the highest bettors that wielded a pencil in the rim;. ""iiere he came from and who he was no one neemed to know, but from his dialect it was assumed that the little, lean, wizen-faced personage in question came either from Yorkshire or Lanca-hire. Rumor had it that lie was an ex stable lid who iiad been crippled by a kick from a MBM hence the "crutch." from which his nickname was derived. Whether that was the case or be was lxjrn a cripple matters little now : suffice it that he s* n became a successful bet ling man and one of the originators of the art of ho-ikmaking Others of the early professors of t|... art or science, as it might lie termed, were J-rrv Cloves Jem Bland Myers thy vocation a batter John Gullv. Tommy Swan, of Bedale t whom it is recorded that he never laid nor took but in. |„.t on a Sunday— Justice. Richards. Mat Milton and Crockford known to fame as "Old r..ikv"i Crutch Robinson, like Crockford. Rids-■ lile Guilv Harry Hill. Fed ley and other layers. figured as an owner, but not with much sue-.ess He was supposed to have landed a big strike over" St Giles Derbv. keeping Mr. Ridsdales colt f,,r lrs lxiok and backing him to b. ot on the "ircn-th of information derived from Gully, with whou? Ridsdale was in partnership. One description of "Crutch" Robinson shows him as a - rewd-faced w izend little man. whose coal hang on his back like a towel on a rail leaning on a not. I, .ricking walnuts, and puking his teeth With a socket kt.ile a queer, uncouth cieat.iiv." instinctive knowledge -. cock-fight tug II- bad an knack -I . is.-overiiig the winner and a marvelous lH.,,,r, ,.„, ise had any idea which bird would "Nature." writer averred a "tin the advinta-e "must have broken the who knew old Crutch well, mold in which she formed the crafty Robinson, with is back against a- be leaned on Ids crutch the outer wall of the Newmarket Betting Rooms, and with his knowing, quiet leer and one hand in 1 1 i , : , , j , . . , • i . . j i i 1 , ; t ; . | . i , j , . , . . : his pocket argued alxuit Stalybridgo Radicals with the then Lord Stanley, or offered to lay again Pleni|»o " He was always ready to lay against hot favorites and gem-rally clinched the deal with the remark. "1 mav just as well have thee five pun as anvbodv else." He never credited reports about horses lieing either dead-amiss or fit to run for a mans life, and was equally skeptical about alleged high trials, and he got many a "live pun" out of those that lielieved in such tales. He knew everything almost about other bookmakers and owners of his day. and "Sylvanus." a long by-gone chronicler of turf worthies and their doings, left behind him a w old picture of "old Crutch." which, unfortunatelv. is far loo long for reproduction. One little conversation lie t ween the bookmaker and "Sylvanus" mav. however, be given: "I remember once asking Robinson, as he sat at the White Bear, in Piccadillv, who the Mr. Hargreaves. the lucky, screaming gentleman with the large face and pink eyes, was when at home. Old Crutch pursed up the corner of his mouth, half closed one eye. and with an air of sneering lordliness simply replied, "Who is he Why. four years agoo he hadna four shilling. Thats who he is. You suprise me. answered 1: how can he have got together such an amount of money as the ring now gives him credit for if he had nothing to commence with? How did he get it. retorted the old cripple. "Why. by going for the gloves, mon. for four vears. and by nobbling Ratan- thatll how hes done it: he was put iu bv his pal. Sam. " There was much more of such illuminating discourse iu "Sylvanus," but, enlightening as it was, suffice it here to note that Ratan was a colt belonging to Crockford, v v then an old man, with which he hoped to win the Derby of 1844. Vrookford had bred Ratan himself, by Buzzard out of a mare by Picton. out of a daughter of Seliin. The colt hail won both of the only races in which he tix k part as a juvenile, the New Stakes at Ascot and the Criterion Stakes. The latter race was run on the now long disused course finishing at the "Top of the Town and starting at the Turn of the Lands beyond the Rowley Mile winning post. He was ridden liy Sam Rogers, who also st"ered him f c the Derby, for which he was heavily backed by his owner and started second favorite, but was nowhere. A story was current at that time that Crockford had died before the Derby was run. but that in order that Ratan might run and some of the money, at all events. l e saved, the corpse was seated iu an armchair at the window of his cluh in St. James street, where he was wont to take up his pirsitieu overlooking the street. As a matter of fact, he died two days afterward. "Crutch" Robinsons allusion to the "nobbling" of Ratan probably had some warrant, for in the October after the Derby the matter was investigated and his jockey was warned off Newmarket Heath, a sentence which was remitted three years afterward. Originally a fishmonger. Crockford blossomed into a commissioner and Ixjokmaker. and subsequently he built a palatial gambling establishment in St. James street, familiarly known to sportsmen of the day as "Crockys." Crockford was a "free fooder" in that the gilded youth and other frequenters of his mansion were provided with free supper of a sumputous character, the only charge being an implied stipula tion that they in return would try their luck it hazard, or. to use an expression in frequent use in the newspapers of that period, "indulge in flirtations with the elephants tooth," from which material the dice — which rattled in their lxixes until the milkman made his matutinal round — used in the fascinating game were manufactured. All the celebrities and notorieties in England were occasional or habitual visitors at "Crockys." and Capt. Gro-now recorded that the iron duke. Lord Raglan, and all the other well-kn wn military men were now and then to be found there. Needless to say, there was also a strong contingent of the aristocratic sup-ixx-ters of the turf, inclusive of Lord Chesterfieli, "the magnificent." Lord Lichfield. Mr. George Payne, Col. I* Anson. Sir St. Vincent Cotton, etc. Novelists and statesmen like Bulwer Lyton and Disraeli on occasion found their legs beneath Crockford* s mahogany, the while Crockford himself looked after the main chance and sat at his desk apart from the board of green cloth on which his patrons often played for enormous stakes. Best remembered as a heli-keeper. Crockford was equally prominent as a layer of odds iu the ring and at Tattersalls. and soon held a foremost position among the bookmakers. He was especially fond of laying such odds as 1.000 to 10 that no one named the winner of the Derby. Oaks and St. Leger. — London Sportsman.
