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Twenty Years Ago Today Chief Turf Events of January 23 1903 Racing at New Orleans Newport and Oak land The liveliest scenes of the present year were enacted among owners and trainers with rac ing strings preparing for the coming turf sea ¬ son at Montgomery Park Memphis Tenn J W Schorrs Rightful which is being prepared for the Crescent City Derby was sent over a fast fiveeighths of a mile Bob McLean Spsncer Reiff and Janeway American Derby candidates were taken out in the same set and given long gallops C R Ellisons Shil ful S S Tracey Companys The Don Bishop Pooles Flocarline and Sidney C Love were worked over the inside course C R EUisons expensive youngsters were worked in several different sets the colt Johnny M by Kingston Wantage doing the fastest threeeighths of the year which was accom ¬ plished in something less than forty seconds Ralph Tozcr who was an official of the Butte meeting last summer has the following to say concerning the supposed ringer Hiram Johnson The ringing of Hiram Johnson at New Orleans is the talk of the track these days and now it is the general belief that the Johnson which was too much for the Crescent City people especially the pencilers was none other than our old friend McNamara with his coat titianized McNamara was the most un ¬ proved horse ever known in Buttc Mont graduating from the selling plater division into New Orleans December 31 owned a horse the handicap class in short order and winning one or two good stakes for L 0 Walz who purchased him out of a selling race the horse had won for W P Magrane About the last day of the Butte meeting McNamara was sold to some unknown by Ben Levy who was in ¬ terested with Walz the consideration being 2500 The unknown walked Levy to the bank and twentyfive 100 bills were counted out the names of the actual buyers being withheld from Levy try as hard as he might to secure the information Then the order came to deliver the horse into the hands of a person who would be in waiting on a side street of Butte That was the last seen of McNamara and the rumor gained currency that he had been purchased by a group of wealthy lawyers If Hiram Johnson and Mc ¬ Namara are one and the same a big cleanup could easily be made and probsbly was though Riley Grannan declared that not more than 5000 was lost in the ring over the victory of the stranger The suspended Mr Mathie sen owned a horse or two in Butte last sum ¬ mer and if memory serves he was a great friend of a turfman supposed to have had something to do with the alleged Spooks last season and now in New Orleans If this turns out to be correct it is among the pos ¬ sibilities that the true story of the Spooks race may come to the surface in the near future and furnish interesting reading to our patrons Mathicscn who got into trouble in named Mox Mox at Butte last summer and it seems this horse was taken to St Louis in September for the purpose of making a kill ¬ ing The plan was to enter a good horse presumably McNamara under the name of the notorious crab Mox Mox and it is said this was done but the officials thought some ¬ thing was wrong and would not allow Mox Mox to start Mox Mox was taken to New Orleans and on December 29 was entered in a race for maidens in which Major Tenny beaten by the alleged Hiram Johnson was the warmest kind of a favorite The horse backed heavily by the early risers ran like Mox Mox for he couldnt beat a museum fat man going up a steep hill It is presumed the real Mox Mox was run for the benifit of the sharpshooters and that his double maybe Mc ¬ Namara painted to order was to be sprung the second time and win a big bunch for the conspirators It is my belief that when this matter is sifted thoroughly McNamara will be found at the bottom of the tangle and perhaps another good horse run under a bogus name and Mathiesen will be found to have had as a confederate a man suspected of running a certain fast marc as Spooks hist year at Emeryville The little dark bay mare that was suspected was said by horsemen to have been painted up and one observant turfman declares that the paint used had not died away around the mares trouper the last time has saw her
