TURF FRAUDS AND TURF PRACTICES.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 227, 17 January 1885, Page 8

TURF FRAUDS AND TURF PRACTICES.

" THE LITTL:

MAN IN GRAY.'

Some few years ago, no person could go to any large race meeting, or frequent any betting rooms in London, without meeting a very little man, who, although at least seventy years of age, seemed to be as active, both in mind and body, as any young fellow of four or five and twenty. Go Avhere you would, provided the meeting was one of any consequence, | and you would be sure to see this little man at some time or other during the day. He was called " the Little Man in Gray," because his hat, his overcoat, and his trousers were all of that colour, and his figure was as conspicuous on every course as that of Mr M'George or Inspector Walker at Epsom. Standing one Derby day. some ten years ago, in the ring at Epsom, I happened to exchange a few words with an old fnend who made a lai'ge book on all the great races. 1 questioned my friend as to who the individual was, when he replied, " Oh, that is ' the Little Man in Gray,' as we call him; but I don't think any one knows his name."' A few weeks later I found my&elf coining back to town from the Windsor meeting, in company with "the Little Man in Gray."' \ From this commenced a sort of acquaintance, which was further improved the next time we ! met. " The Little Man in Gray" asked me to dine with him on a Sunday. 1 never sat j down to a better dinner, and never ate a | heartier meal. As soon as the cloth was reI moved, his sister betook herself away, and seeing, I suppose, an expression of wonder in j my face, " the Little Man in Gray " volunteered me a kind of explanation respecting his mode of life. "You go to a good many race meetings ?"' said I, hazarding a remark which I hoped would bring him out. "I live by them," was the reply. "lam a regular betting man, although not what is 1 called a bookmaker. I bet the year round, and make my calculations so as to come in, more or less, a winner at every meeting. I t have a book upon each of them ; and so arrange my betting that I must be a winner on each and every race which is large enough. " I have been a betting man for nearly forty years," continued the little man, " and have seen a number of curious things connected with the turf in that time. You talk of frauds, why, when has the racecourse been free of frauds ? But is it worse than the City? Is it as bad as the Stock Exchange V Take even the worst thing you have ever heard, or read, of on the turf, was it more rascally than the deliberately concocted false prospectuses which used to come out at the rate of twenty or thirty a day, recommending people who did not know any better to invest all their savings in wretched bubble companies ? Was the liunning llein robbery as bad as the Overend-Gurney business ? Are the worst ' welchers ' a bit worse than the hundreds of directors of joublic companies who, having been handsomely paid to manage the affairs of their shareholders, help themselves and their friends to -money, and, when the bubble bursts, bolt to the Continent ? " Scoundrels !'' he continued, in reply to an observation of mme — " Scoundrels! of course there are scoundrels on the turf — none greater. But are there not scoundrels in every trade and every profession now-a-days ? You ask me what is the greatest piece of rascality I can recollect in connection with racing ? I'll tell you of one that happened in olden days, a long time before you were born. "At the time I speak of I was a boy in a training stable near Newmarket. We had in the stable the horse that was the second favourite for the next Leger at Doncastei-. He had run second for the Two Thousand, third for the Derby, and had won the xVscot Cup. In those times — mind you, it is close on fifty years ago that I am talking about — noblemen and gentlemen used to run their horses fair to win, and did not think of racing as a mere money-making trade, as is I but too often the case now. But there was more ' getting at ' horses ; more attempts, often successful ones, to make certain horses ' safe ' for any race in which the ' legs ' of the turf were betting against them. So much was this the case, that when any trainer had a horse in his stable that was at all likely to win a race, he was very careful indeed to watch the animal, and prevent it being ' nobbled ' either by outsidei's or by his lads who had charge of it. " The horse I had charge of had been very heavily bet against in London, and my master got a letter from the noble lord who owned it to warn him to be on his guard. In his turn, my master told me never to leave the horse's box unlocked for a moment, if I happened to go away, and all the men about the premises were told to report any strange person seen lounging about the place. " One Sunday forenoon, my master with his family had just started for church, when a gig drove up to his house, and out of it stepped a well-dressed, gentlemanly looking man. Pie asked to see the trainer, and beingtold that he was at church, said it was unfortunate, for he was the Honourable Captain Avil, brother of Lord Avil, who owned the favourite of which we were so careful. He showed a letter of introduction, sealed, as I could see, with a coronet, and addressed to our maste^asking leave at the same time just to see the horse, in order that he might make a report to his brother. The head man, who was always in charge of the establishment whenever the master was out of the way, gave his consent, and I was told to take the

gentleman to the loose box. I did so, and the stranger asked me to take off the animal's clothing." As I Avas fumbling with the buckles of the surcingle (buckles in those days were not so handy as they are now), Captain Avil shifted round the horse, and got up to his manger. Most . fortunately, I happened to dive under the horse, in order to get to the other side, and as I did so I heard the rattle of something which the Captain had evidently put into the manger. I had the presence of mind not to notice it, but took good care not to let go of the horse's head whilst the Captain pretended to be admiring him. In a couple of minutes the gentleman walked towards the door, and I, whilst putting- on the horse's hood, slipped on his muzzle at the same time. The Captain was very profuse with his thanks, slipped a guinea into my hand, and drove off in his g-ig. He could nob bo prevailed upon to remain a minute longer, although wo urged him to do so, until the master should ho back from church. !i I kept my own council, and kept the muzzle on the- horse until my master came back, and then told him exactly what had happened. Ho said at once that the stranger ?uust be an impostor, for he know that Lord Avil's only brother was in. India with his regiment. But when he hoard my story, iind found in the horse's manger a number of small pellets, each about the size of a pea, and coloured so as to bo exactly like the wood of which the manger was made, ho was in a great fright lest something had been given to the animal. The horse was removed to another box, and the pellets, being taken to a neighboring doctor, were found each one to contain a quantity of what has since been a poison more generally known, namely, strychnine, but which in. those days had been very little heard of. One of these little pills would have been enough to paralyse the horse, and two or three must have killed him outright. The poison was carefully done up in bits of sugar, which any horse will eat if he can get it. '' Fifty years ago there Avere, I need hardly tell you, no railways and no telegraphs. It was a good day's journey by coach from Newmarket to London. As soon as my master found out the trick that had so nearly succeeded, he started off to London, and saw Lord Avil at once, and the result of their consultation Avas a determination to turn the tables on the scoundrels Avho had so nearly poisoned the horse. ' ' A report Avas carefully spread in certain betting circles that the horse, of which we Avero bo careful, had gone Avrong, and that it Avas very questionable indeed whether or not he would ever run for the Leger. The bait was easily swallowed, in the loose-box, in AA'hich our horse had been until now, a very seedy animal, clothed up to the nose, with Lord Avil's cipher on his clothing, and the name of the favorite over the box, Avas kept, and never allowed to go out. The favourite was removed to another part of the country, and his training carefully finished. He came forth in great triumph and splendid form at Doncaster, much to the disgust of those who had laid 100 and 150 to one against him, believing him to be little better than a ' dead un." Lord Avil and his friends netted amongst them something like £25,000 by the race, and in those days this Avas thought to be a very large .sum indeed."

(To he continued.)