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Show PRIEST: WHO WON THE BORSE RACE AND DIDN'T KNOW IT i An Old Turfman's Story.) 'V'hen Bomebody told me the other day hat Merces, the 2-year-old trick that Mon a good race at Saratoga with the. ch?.lk at 10 to 1, belonged to a New England clergyman. I dozed back a little stretch of flfteen years and dreamed .there for awhile," remarked a veteran trainer, who was better acquainted ac-quainted with Artful's great-grandslre Hindoo than be is with the winner o this year's Futurity. "One of the characters of the old St. Louis fair grounds track during the '80s was Bricky McSweeney, whose freckles were as red as his hair. Xo-body Xo-body was ever able to figure it out hovy Brickj got by. He wbs never known to win a bet, although it was-a matter of common notoriety that he would bet as high as J2 whenever he could get the' $2. But he was a good natured Jonah man and he never lo.-t his belief that some old day he. would be there with enough of the sepia papers pa-pers to paper: a city school house. "Rrieky had the privileges of the track, because he was always possessed pos-sessed of some kind of badge horse. All of Bricky's badge horses were, of course, gift -plugs. They'd be left behind be-hind by departing owners at the termination ter-mination of the racing season. "Whenever an owner would try time and again to poke one of his no ac-! ac-! counts into the money, only to have the.Ekate fall down, every time his kidding kid-ding friends would hand him the suggestion, sug-gestion, 'Bricky McSweeney's waiting for that one,' and so it happened that for eight straight years Bricky- wa3 never without some kind of a hoofed thing in his shed, entitling him to get in at the .gate and to move around in the r?.ddoek. "Bricky's finish was sudden. "One afternoon in the summer of 'S3 he was standing at the paddock gate leading out on to the track just as the horses In a big field of maidens were turning into the stretch. An old blind she-hound that had been the pet of the stables since the days of her pup-pyhood pup-pyhood doddered out of the stable and started to cross the track. "A hundred stable bands yelled at the old dog, but they yelled so hard thr.t they scared her. and she stood paralyzed plumb in the middle of the track, and the big field of horses, already al-ready close to the wire, bearing down upon her at full speed. The blind she-hound she-hound had been a pal of Bricky's for a good many years, and he wasn't going to see. her pounded into pulp under the hoofs of the horses. "So just as the horses were speeding under the wire, only fifty yards away. Bricky. against the warning cries of the whole bunch huddled at the pad dock gate, hopped out on to the track caught the old dog around her middle I and, putting all of his power into hU . arms, tossed her over the infield rail , and she lit, unhurt, on the soft grass "Bricky was just turning to mak l the few leaps for the paddock gaU . when the first of the pulling up horses hit him and knocked him down, and then about ten of the eighteen maiden; ' trampled on him. When the stabk bands carried him to the paddock cn-, cn-, closure it didn't take any expert eye to see that Bricky was about to make 1 a quick cash-in. "One of the stable hands loped for a priest. The priest's cottage, alongside his little church, was only about a quarter of a, mile from the track entrance, en-trance, and the kindly old man of the cloth was leaning over the gasping Bricky just about in time. "Bricky was a Catholic and the priest anointed him. The administration of the final sacrament was scarcely finished fin-ished before Bricky's freckled face spread into one of his ear to ear grins, and ho nodded to the bid priest to bend his car a bit closer. The priest did so. "'Father,' whispered-. Bricky, still grinning, 'I hain't got no kin, so l'il leave my hoss to you.' "Then Bricky cracked his last joke, with death only about a minute away from him. " 'He hain't much of a hoss, father he gasped, 'but you can melt him down an" git some tallow candles fr th altar out o' him at that.' And then Bricky's eyelids fluttered a bit, and he piped out. "All hands around the track chippeti in to give Bricky something better than decent burial, at which the old priest who had closed Bricky's. eyes officiated. After they'd laid Bricky away I rode back from the cemetery with the priest, as benign and gentle-fouled gentle-fouled a silver-haired mar. from the oil dart as you ever met. " 'What was this the poar lad was saying to me about, a horse?' the old priest asked me on the drive in. "I couldn't help but smile at the qu3s-,ti0n. qu3s-,ti0n. " 'Well, I gueps Bricky had it about right as to the altar candles, father," I said, and then I went ahead and told him something about the kind of horses Bricky had always been the proprietor pro-prietor of. " 'I don't just remember the turtle he had last,' I said, 'but I'll find out when I reach the track and take a look at him, and maybe 111 be able to sell him for you to some fellow with a milk route.' "The priest thanked me for my interest in-terest and said he'd be obliged to me if I'd take charge of the hor?; until it was decide-d if anything could be done with the mutt. When I gnt to the track I strolled over to the out of the way barn where the harrow mules and day laboring workhorses of the track were quartered, to have a peck at the late Bricky's season admission crab. "Well, the hoi fe kind o' surprised me. I'd seen the makings of a lot worse glue than that fellow go to the races and get something. "He was a 4-year-old maiden, but one of those years couldn't he counted against him, for he had belonged to Bricky since' the preceding autumn, and hadn't been raced in his 4-year-old form. Hadn't been raced much as a 3-year-old, either, I remembered, being j looked upon as no account. "I dug up the dope on the horse, tracing him back through all of his races, and it wasn't such awful dope. I There .were, always some horses behind him, anyway. He was pretty cleverly bred -at that. "I, found him there with the work horses, j,tos3 and high and unkempt and uncared for, but the poor devil of a neglected cast-off thoroughbred had seme good lines about him and a breadth between the eyes that betokened betok-ened his possession of a lot of patience and strong E'snse. When I stepped into his box tj get the feel of him, he knew right off that' I wasn't a harrow driver or stable mechanic the kind of two-fooled two-fooled company he'd been obliged to put up with fcr so long but a handler of .blood runners of the tribe to which he knew he belonged, and it kind o' got me lumpy around the neck when he rested his muzzle against the top button but-ton of my vest and locked up at me with his big. wistful, patient lamps. Felt sorry for the old wetd-out, blamed if I didn't. " 'Anyhow, I'r gcing to give you a little run for your taw agate, bo,' I said to the old maiden, and then he nodded his head u; and down and looked sort o' grateful and pleased. "I led him by his halter Over to my own shed. That evening I took a bit of a wfclk ever to the old priest's cottage cot-tage to tell him that the horse Bricky had bequeathed to him wouldn't be sold to a fellow with a. milk route for a little while yet. He asked trie why not, but I kind o' ducked that by telling, him that I didn't know any milk people, and then s-yitched the subject. "I took a look out of the tall of my eye at the old priest's surroundings. He wag only Just getting by, and that's all, J could see. Had a little church about the size of a summer kitchen out there on the edge of St. Loo, and even that, was mortgaged, along with Ihe cottage he lived in. y VHe was f.ne of. those good old men of the cloiri that Urny'rie always sending send-ing ci'f Foinowherc to start something? juot as soon "a fcaiifc u$ uongre.- gation an' got it t'b prospering. He was the whole work?. I found outran out-ran the church, taught the parochial school, instructed the sodalities, ran the Sunday school, buried the dead, married the willing, chastened the new ones, and all on an income that would not have kept some jockeys I know in cigarettes for a week. J "The next morning, with a bing and ! a rattle. I started to work on Bricky's j four-legged bequest. Tacked him on ; to my string and labored with him. "The fat fell away from him in no time, and he was a "hog for work. In , about three weeks he was in shape to show me something on the easy side. . He did it right willingly., at that passed me up a mile in 1:50 without any ' distress.. - ! , "I gave him his. daily speeding then for another couple of weeks, and at ' the end of that time he breezed me ( the mile in 1:45 without being let down . by the heavy boy on his back. When . he got through doing that I gave him a slap on the high haunch, and, says I ; to him: j . " 'Bud, I'm going to run you to help out the square and white old man that J buried your pal Bricky, and I want t you to behave. How about it?' , "The old maiden blinked his eyes rapidly and tossed his head and pawed the ground, and he couln't have said it any plainer in words that he was 4 going to make the dog-gondest stab he i knew how. "I had to wait another week before f had a chance "to stun: him into a field i made up of a dozen 4-year-old maid- 4 ens. j "Couple of days before the race I J slipped over to the old priest's cottag?. Found him pacing up and down in his ridiculouslv titty garden beside his col- ! 4 tage, in his cassock, and reading his A breviary. " 'Ever have the 'horde bug very hard. m father?' I asked him, and when I ex- -plained what that meant he smiled and called me a limb of darkness. " 'Because,' I went on, 'one of your j stable is going to hunt for the coin day ; after tomorrow, and I want you to call all dates off on that afternoon and i come over to the track and watch him j cop.' "Had to get out the glossary to j straighten that out for the good old I man, too. Well, he was enormously pleased to hear that I had taken Bricky's horse up and got him keyed up for a race with his own class. " 'I thought some of running him in your name, father,' I went on, just to get a rise out of him, for I'd never had i such an idea, 'but ' j " 'I'm glad you win t ao mat. my son.' he broke in, alarmed. 'It might . be misunderstood and ' " 'Well, when I was in Ireland a few ; years ago,' I broke in on him, 'it seemed to me as if half the steeple- j chase horses I saw perform belonged j to men of your faith and clotlr. It wa.s ! Father This's lepper here and Father t That's chaser there. I " "Oh, I know that.- my son,' said the I old priest, a twinkle In his eye. 'In 1 fact, when I was a young man back in ; the ould country, I meself knew the leg of a horse as well as the but, tush: It s been many the year since I allowed al-lowed meself to participate in such frivolity.' " 'Well.' I said, 'we want you to be on the stand, anyhow, day after tomorrow. Coming, ain't you?' "I could see the hankering in tlio good old man's eye to see a race. It had probably been forty years since f? he'd seen a bunch of 'cm coming into' the stretch 'way back yonder in the m mist of the flown years when he was a young fellow in Ireland, ;! " 'I can't see any evil in it.' he re- i plied, after a long pause. 'As a looker on. but no participant. "''' ' ""' -i " 'Tour horse is jroing to win. father,' . I said then, and I felt confident of it at that. 'Er uh the boys are kind o" !j talking of chipping in each man just a little bit, you - understand and get- ting down a bet for you, just for the sake of sentiment.' ' j: "'That must not be,' said the old j priest, earnestly. 'You mu5t stop that, j If the horse earns anything by his j own effort, well and good, and may he run and win for the glory of God. But 110 gambling in my name. I depend upon you to stop that.' u "All the same, about a. dozen of the J; trainers around the grounds quietly fc chipDed in. enough to make up a $100 betting bundle and passed it over to me. I'd told 'em what a hard fight the old priest was having of it to keep his flock together, and. besides that. I g passed them the straight word' that the badge maiden that had belonged to the dead Bricky was going to connect. ; "On the dai of the race I escorted ;; the old' Driest over to the track, and j found him a seat away up on the top i tier of the grandstand. Then I went down and saddled the horse, for he was ; to sro in the first race. "I put the Jockey up and gave him his instructions, and then I returned to the grandstand to join the priest. ; I had got the $100 down on his horse at 50 to 1. "It was a mile; race and the field started directly opposite the stand. across the field. When the barrier flashed it stuck on one side, and nine i of tha twelve horses went off on a ?: false break, the starter and the assist-, i; ant starter yelling at the boys with all ; their lungs. "But the whole nine went the entire en-tire route and fought the finish out to Fj the wire, when they were called back to the starting post. The old priest's horse wasn't among those nine, and then I knew that he had only two horses to beat, and these two, provi- ! dentially. the worst of the entire lot. " 'Well.' I said to the kindly old man then and he looked tremendously excited ex-cited 'I'm mighty glad your horse didn't get away with that fool bunch, i I'd hate to have you lose $5,000 on such a fluke.' "The old gentleman stared at me. " 'Why.' said I and may I be forgiven for-given for that bald lie 'the amount of ! the stakes in this race, you know, j This is th? Missouri Industrial stakes that your horse is running in. and the 5 first horse home gets the five thousand E as his share. I thought you knew that all the time.' ; "I got by with it all right. He never read the papers didn't have time and E2 he didn't know a 4-year-old maiden t race for. mutts from a drill for mus- t tsngs. t "I hadn't any sooner made the ex- planation to him than the flag flashed g for a square start, and the three horsco that hadn't worn themselves out by f the false dash around. the track rock- I eted to the front in the first twenty I yards, the old priest's in front. At thQ turn into th stretch he shook I those two off like a tug shaking a scow, and. romped home thirty lengths I to the good. I "That was the first and only time I I ever saw a. dignified old man of the cloth flacking his arms like a stable I hand waving a blanket in the Infield and trying all he knew to yell his tonsils down. level -with his palate. I I was looking at him and laughing, when f he caught my expression, and sat down f eheopishly. 1 " 'Heaven forgive me for a sinful old man.' he said, mopping his brow, 'but I praise be! did ye iver see a rogue of p a horse thravel so fast in all the life $ av vft?' "A lot of us went over to the oid f priest's cottage that feveniftg. I had I the $3,000 with me, and when I counted f out the 'first money of the Missouri f Industrial stakes to him it was worth a good deal more to see his, face. I "He made a humorous sneech, an- nouncing his permanent retirement from the racing game, and presenting I his entire stable to me. I won nearly a dozen good and profitable races with f Bricky's badge horse during the next F two years, but none of them gave me fio much satisfaction as the one ' the 1 ' willing nag cOpped when he was first home in the phony '.MiHstouri Indus- I trial stakes.' " Jycw Tork fc'un. g. |