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BLAME EXERCISER FOR NOSE STUFFING. Pinlterton Police Make Report of Their Investigation to Jockey Club Officials. By Ed Cole. Saratoga, x N. Y., August 20. The network of evidence is steadily entangling the scoundrel who committed the act of "nose stuffing" on the horse Imperator prior to his last race over the Saratoga course about ten days ago. From what can be learned the culprit is an exercise boy doing odd jobs for owners with small stables who cannot afford to pay a regular employe for exercising purposes. Owing to the evidence not being absolutely complete ?s, ,t0 .corrboration, the name of the boy is withheld, but that he is an old hand at the business is positive. Dating back to the Aqueduct meeting the evidence shows that this same exercise boy had either been engaged or was influenced to "sponge" the horse I51ue Thistle prior to a race the following day. Owing to some mistake instead of entering Blue lliistle s stall, he broke into the stall occupied by the horse Kebo and inserted a surgical or what is known as a silk sponge into the nostril of Kebo. Shortly afterwards the trainer of Kebo discovered the sponge and reported the incident. Investigation was started at once and some sponges of like material were traced to the aforesaid exercise boy. who had others in his posession. Nothing was apparently done in the matter, probably for lack of conclusive evidence, and the boy continued to exercise horses for different owners. He was engaged to work Imperator in his trials and the Kebo incident cast suspicion on him after the sponge had been discovered in the nose of Imperator It was not a surgical sponge used upon this occasion, but a small portion of an ordinary tack sponge. It is presumed by the investigators that the boy used that variety of sponge to throw off suspicion after the surgical sponges had been traced to him in the Kebo case. Who his accomplices are lias not as yet been determined, though it is known the boy has been associating with a lounger who, until recently, was a valet for jockeys, but who has been barred from all tracks for shady transactions. This man is supposed to be the instigator of the nose stuffing acts and believed to be the go-between of the financial men in the cases referred to. The Pinkerton police have sent in their reports, which are now in the hands of the Jocky Club officials with the names of all parties concerned and no doubt some action will be taken shortly, there being sufficient circumstantial evidence to warrant it. If the offense was a criminal one the severest sentence would not be too great a punishment for all concerned, as there evidently is a combination of workers at the helm, who profit by such dastardly acts.
