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RACING POPULAR ON RHINE Totalizator Only Means of Speculation Curious Things Sometimes Happen. Race meetings on the Rhine are particularly well supported. They draw huge crowds, as civilians are also permitted to attend. The course generally used by the Cologne garrison is nt Merheim. This is a suburb so near the town that it is no great hardship to be compelled to walk back if one has had a. bad day and cannot even run to the tram, fare of a few pfennigs.. As to making money by picking out winners, this is not too easy, since bookmakers arc strictly "verboten." Consequently, if one wants to back ones fancy, the totalizator has to be patronised. This, however, is not a - short cut to wealth, as the average paid out is seldom more than 5 to 1. Also, owing to the surging mass at the too few ticket offices, it is a difficult matter to get on at all, and a still more difficult one to draw ones winnings afterwards. A win of a couple of hundred marks Mounds like a lot of money, perhaps. Still, with the exchange being what it is, it only means ufout fifteen shillings. Thus, quite a number of winners hate to be picked out before anything worth having Is made. Curious things sometimes happen on the Merheim course. I remember one in connection with the last Cologne spring meeting. In a certain race the first three horses passed the post, and although the numbers had gone up, another animal was still seen to be running just as if the race Were not finished. Ribald jeers from the crowd greeted its effort, while the owner was made the recipient of extravagantly fancy offers, I noticed, however, that the owner did not jeer. It. ...struck me that he had something up his " sleeve. "Tliis"ls just what he did have, as it happened, for, to the surprise and discomfort of everybody else, he claimed the race on the ground that the other runners had gone the wrong course and actually missed a couple of flags. On an investigation being held, the stewards were compelled to support this view and disqualify the three in whose favor they had already declared. So in Cologne, as elsewhere, a race is not lost uutil it is wvu. Bailys Magazine.
