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SOME REMARKABLE RACING DREAMS Thormanby Relates Some Astonishing Tales of the Turf Occurring in England Of 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 And it must be admitted that there is some ground for such belief for in 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 month before the Derby of 1873 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 chance to her husband and that the horse won the race At breakfast next morning she told him her dream The steward who was skeptical about such matters laughed at her but asked the name of the horse Doncaster 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 Pooh pooh old girl Doncaster hasnt a chance replied her worser half Ive backed the winner and his names Kaiser and you shall have a new bonnet out of the stakes stakesThe The lady shook her head and stuck to her text though she knew it was no use arguing A few days 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 has no chance and if you can get some one to give a guinea for it let me know knowPeters 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 would be useless to inquire but Mr Peters reply was All right sir and theres the guinea and if nobody will have it I will keep it not but what I feel sure that Kaiser will win winWINS WINS 150 SOVEREIGNS AS RESULT OF DREAM DREAMThe The ticket was at once transferred to him and he actually offered it to several gentlemen who promptly refused it When the great day arrived and James Merrys horse was declared the winner to the great astonishment and consternation of a good many people Mr Peters had the satisfaction of pocketing 150 sovereigns Perhaps you wont poohpooh my dreams next time cried the missis exultingly when he told her the good news newsThere There seems to have been something pecu ¬ liar and oninious alMiut 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 Timson by name woke the partner of her bed by singing out lustily the boy in yaller wins the day Ned Timson who had been bawling mackerel all the previous 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 refreshing slumbers gave her a thump and told her to shut up When they were both awake he asked her what 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 H the other horses and everybody shouted the boy 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 in yaller Id put a bit on him if I was you Shut up you silly mug growled Ned who put as little confidence in dreams as did our friend the steward But stewardBut these skeptical gentlemen are sometimes not quite so skeptical as they would fain make be ¬ lieve and when Mr Edward Timson who was a bit 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 lie bought a ney horse and cart and christened the former Yellow Boy while Sal you may be sure did not forget to exult about her dream She became a celebrity of the neighbor ¬ hood and was regarded by her pals as a sort of Cassandra as no doubt she was in some respects when she had imbibed to many halfquarterns of gin ginMy My next Doncastrian anecdote is not exactly a dream story though its hero was a sleeping man it belongs rather 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 Fly ¬ ing Scotchman and having fallen asleep was awakened by the guard shouting Doncaster Don caster Eh by jove he cried starting up and rubbing his eyes you dont say so lias Merrys horse then really won wonRAILWAY RAILWAY GUARD GIVES TIP ON DERBY DERBYThe The guard was so struck by the words that he related them to several people I should take it as a til 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 Kamsden nephew ot a wellknown trainer who though he had a great taste for racing never staked a farthing upon any other event than the Derby but regularly every year put his fiver upon his fancv for the Blue Riband 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 man ¬ ner of selecting his horse was singularly original he never took a tip never allowed his judgment to be influenced as far as putting on his money went by any sporting organ he apiwaled purely and simply to blind chance in this manner He wrote out the names of all the horses that ran each upon a separate slip of paper rolled each up in a little pellet 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 rebounded farthest Though the exi eriment had not been successful on the whole it was eminently so for the Derby of 1873 for the i ellet he picked up had Doncaster inscribed upon it itAnother Another famous dream horse was Blue Gown Tin following story was related to me by a sporting writer as a personal experience After that famous Derby was run I went off to finish the night at Cremorne I had scarcely passed through the gates when I met a pal in the commercial line in high spirits who asked me to come and have a drink I have just landed a thou over Blue Gown he said and it is the queerest story you have ever heard I fancied Rosicrucian 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 I dreamed a lady came to me and said Mind I shall require a blue gown to match witli the stockings you have given me Well I never thought of con ¬ necting 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 sin ¬ gular but still the coincidence never dawned upon me though I actually dreamed it a third time But it was now so extraordinary that I mentioned the circumstance to a friend Its atip for the Derby as sure as youre alive he cried at once lay 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 l een such a fool as not to see it before I didnt lose a mo ¬ ment in putting on Blue Gown every farthing I could scrape up and this showing a roll of bank notes is the result resultDYING DYING MANS DREAM COMES TRUE TRUEAbout About the same time a man named Lowry who had been a tout to Henry Padwick was lying dan ¬ gerously ill his 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 Jim what makes you think that inquired the wife Because its come to me in my sleep he answered answeredShe She had the courage to follow his advice and though he was under the turf before the event came off she made a nice little sum by the tip to console her widowhood and give her a good chance to an ¬ other husband husbandThe The triple dream I have just mentioned had a parallel some years previously A man named Coakely a chemist and druggist at Stockbridge one night in the spring of 1846 dreamed that he saw Pyrrhus the First win the Derby He wag not a betting man so he could not understand what had put the horse into his head he was still more puz ¬ zled when he dreamed the same thing ot the fol ¬ lowing night he was yet more astounded when it returned on the third Being acquainted vith John Day who as everybody knows lived in tin neigh ¬ borhood he told him about this curious vision of the night I should back him was the worthy trainers advice The chemist wisely took it and made more by that tip in a day than he would have done by pills in a year For my next anecdote I must go as far back as 1839 A provincial actor named Freeman well known in his time while performing in some country town had his benefit fixed for the Derby night In those days of small salaries the benefit was the actors main dependence to clear off debts stock him with clothes and prepare him for his next engagement and 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 conflicting ideas that he was almost ill One night his wife awoke him with Jim did you hear that Na ho said What I heard a voice say quite distinctly that if you put 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 bills those In tho town who had bet on the horse thinking it a lucky tip took tickets and when the news came that Flying Dutchman won the Blue Riband numbers of people struck by the coincidence flocked to the theater filling it from floor to ceiling and making it indeed as the mysterious voice had prognos ¬ ticated the biggest house of the season Thor manby in London Sportsman
