This is great stuff!!

[MaTH716]

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord

From the Daily Racing Form: October 4th 1913








OK -- so.

The leader is believed to bleed during the race, his jockey keeps riding him anyway...the leader falls down and takes everyone except two horses down with him in a spill that must have looked like the recent Charles Town disaster.

Two horses finish the race.

A stableboy decides to jump on the back of the horse who caused the spill -- and rides him around the track while the horse is bleeding visably from his nostrils.

The bettors who played said horse to show become enraged when they don't get paid -- and storm the track in protest. A riot occurs and lasts while horses are still on the track for the next race!

The obviously powerless powers that be decide to refund all show bets and cancel the rest of the card.

When you think of the glory days of horse racing you think of a glorious time when bettors played against a relatively microscopic takeout and the government regulation that has strangled this sport now wasn't in play. However, an incident like that truly is insane Wild West stuff.

I could only imagine what the article in the Times looked like the next day .