view raw text
SOME ENGLISH RACING SWINDLES How Reporter Used the Papers for an Imaginary Mooting at Trodmore Ingenitis were tlic schemes resorted to by un ¬ scrupulous backers of horses to swindle bookmakers some years ago in England says London Tit Bits The layers of odds are naturally extremely cute and fully conversant with the thousand and one schemes formulated by equally astute backers of horses to swindle them Among the latter class are thousands of cunning adventurers who subsist entirely on their wits and as these gentry delight to live in the lap of luxury and squander money like water when they have it they arc constantly arranging new and deeplaid plots when hard up to deplete the banking accounts of the bookmakers bookmakersAn An ingenlus scheme was successfully carried through in Krigland a decade ago or so which for absolute during is unparalleled in the history of rac ¬ ing The leading sporting papers one day received a properly arranged program of a race meeting which was to take place at a town called Trod ¬ more The sender of the list of horses engaged the weights they had to carry and the times at which the different events were run signed hi name and added Reporter The races were duly run and the obliging Reporter sent in another interesting item to the sporting dailies Nothing was missing everything was in apple pie order evidently the reporter knew his business thoroughly The hard working and conscientious journalist had carefully collected the starting price of the winners and losers and his account of the days racing duly appeared in the papers lie sent it to This was eagerly perused with the greatest inter ¬ est by a large number of bookmakers in London and they found to their sorrow that nearly all the win ¬ ners had been backed for big sums by many of their numerous clients who were evidently expert Judges of racing or extraordinarily lucky luckyWHEBE WHEBE WAS TRODHOREr TRODHORErAs As the horses had started at long odds against they lost heavily A lot of those who had been severely hit discussed the matter Tvith their con ¬ freres Where was Trodmore the place where the lucky backers had found so many good win ¬ ners Has any one Tieard of these horses or jockeys before No No one had now they came to think about it Many of the bookmakers had been connected with racing for nearly half a cen ¬ tury Detectives were engaged and they unearthed one of the most gigantic swindles on record It was discovered that there was no such place in England as Trodmore there never had been such a meeting there were no such horses or jockeys in existence as those mentioned in the program and the Reporter well his days work was done and lie vanished like a dream He has never even sent in his bill to the papers for his interest ¬ ing contributions The whole thing was one of the most impudent and cleverly organized spoofs on record A lot of the money in tenners and fivers was obligingly put out for the gang by innocent waiters and hotel and theater doorkeepers in the west end and the daring swindlers have never been traced They vanished with their win ¬ nings ningsANOTHER ANOTHER INGENIOUS METHOD METHODSome Some racing sharps successfully robbed the book ¬ makers of a large sum of money at Warwick some years ago by the following ingenious method In Tattersalls ring bookmakers are bound by the rules to pay over the horse that actually gets the race so that in the event of an objection and the runner which has passed the judge first being dis ¬ qualified they pay only over the one to which tliu stewards after due investigation award the race In the halfcrown rings and outside the rings the bookies pay first past the post irrespective ot objection A crack jockey was properly and cor ¬ rectly weighed out by the official clerk of the scales for a certain race at Warwick on tlic oc ¬ casion mentioned and the horse he rode was heavily and systematically backed with bookies who pay first past the post The animal won easily When his jockey went to the scales after the nice lie failed to draw within fourteen pounds of what he should have done His saddle cloth was Iminedia ately examined and it was discovered that it had been tampered Svitli by some one aftcr the Jockey liad been weighed 6iit and several of the lead weights removed The winner was promptly dis ¬ qualified and the race aWarded to the one which Ifad finished second Tlie gang reaped a rich harvest The Jockey was however after due in ¬ quiry exonerated by the authorities from any blame in tlie matter as his integrity was beyond dispute Several turfites got into serious trouble over this affair but the real delinquents were never dis ¬ covered
