Daley was back with us in a few minutes and says to Kate: “I guess you’ll have to bet on yourself in the first race.”
So she asked him what did he mean and he said: “I had a tip on a filly named Sweet and Pretty.”
“O Mr. Daley!” says Kate.
“They don’t expect her to win,” says Daley, “but she’s six, two and even, and I’m going to play her place and show.”
Then he explained what that was and he said he was going to bet a thousand each way and finally the gals decided to go in for $10 apiece to show. It tickled them to death to find out that they didn’t have to put up nothing. We found seats down in front wile Daley went to place the bets. Pretty soon the horses come out and Kate and Ella both screamed when they seen how cute the jockeys was dressed. Sweet and Pretty was No. 10 and had a combination of colors that would knock your eye out. Daley come back and explained that every owner had their own colors and of course the gals wanted to know what his was and he told them Navy blue and orange sleeves with black whoops on them and a blue cap.
“How beautiful!” says Ella. “I can’t hardly wait to see them!”
“You must have wonderful taste in colors!” says Kate.
“Not only in colors,” he says.
“O Mr. Daley!” she says again.
Well, the race was ran and No. 10 was a Sweet and Pretty last.
“Now,” I says, “you O Mr. Daley.”
The gals had yelped themself hoarse and didn’t have nothing to say, but I could tell from their face that it would take something more than a few pretty speeches to make up for that twenty men.
“Never mind that!” said Daley. “She got a rotten ride. We’ll get that back on the next one.”
His hunch in the next one was Sena Day and he was betting a thousand on her to place at 4 to 1. He made the gals go in for $20 apiece, though they didn’t do it with no pep. I went along with him to place the bets and he introduced me to a bookie so as I could bet a few smackers of my own when I felt like it. You know they’s a law against betting unless it’s a little bet between friends and in order to be a bookie’s friend he’s got to know your name. A quick friendship sprung up between I and a guy named Joe Meyer, and he not only give me his card but a whole deck of them. You see the law also says that when you make one of these bets with your pals he can’t give you no writing to show for it, but he’s generally always a man that makes a lot of friends and it seems like they all want to make friendly bets with him, and he can’t remember where all his buddies lives, so he makes them write their name and address on the cards and how much the friendly wager is for and who on, and so forth, and the next day he mails them the bad news and they mail him back a check for same. Once in a wile, of course, you get the bad news and forget to mail him the check and he feels blue over it as they’s nothing as sad as breaking up an old friendship.
I laid off Sena Day and she win. Daley smiled at the gals.
“There!” he says. “I’m sorry we didn’t play her on the nose, but I was advised to play safe.”
“Fine advice!” said Kate. “It’s cost Sis and I $60 so far.”
“What do you mean?” says Daley.
“We lose $20 on the first race,” she says, “and you tell us we’ll get it back on the next one and we bet the horse’ll come second and it don’t.”
So we had to explain that if a horse win, why it placed, too, and her and Ella had grabbed $160 on that race and was $140 ahead. He was $2,000 winners himself.
“We’ll have a drink on Sena,” he says. “I don’t believe they was six people out here that bet a nickel on her.”
So Katie told him he was wonderful and him and the gals had a sarsaparilla or something and I poured my own. He’d been touting Cleopatra in the third race, but her and everybody else was scratched out of it except Captain Alcock and On Watch. On Watch was 9 to 10 and Alcock even money and Daley wouldn’t let us bet.
“On Watch is best,” he says, “but he’s giving away twenty pounds and you can’t tell. Anyway, it ain’t worth it at that price.”
“Only two horses in the race?” asked Ella.
“That’s all,” he says.
“Well, then, listen,” she says, all excited: “Why not bet on one of them for place?”
Daley laughed and said it was a grand idear only he didn’t think the bookbinders would stand for it.
“But maybe they don’t know,” she says.
“I guess they do,” said Daley. “It’s almost impossible to keep a secret like that round a race track.”
“Besides,” I said, “the bookworms owes you and Kate $70 apiece and if you put something like that over on them and they find it out, they’ll probably get even by making you a check on the West Bank of the Hudson River.”
So we decided to play fair and lay off the race entirely. On Watch come through and the gals felt pretty bad about it till we showed them that they’d of only grabbed off nine smackers apiece if they’d of plunged on him for $20 straight.
Along toward time for the next race, Daley steered us down by the paddock and we seen some of the nags close up. Daley and the gals raved over this one and that one,
