You can’t beat the ¢

-Every day long lines of BC
gic trolleys and buses, load-
With horse players studying
€lr form charts, stream out to
astings Park, It is rumored
at track officials are consider-
ea building an elastic fence
Nd grandstand to hold the
to wehappy citizens who flock
® their outdoor roulette wheel
ra the hope of making’ a few
48t bucks.
Bent you beat the races? The
SWer is: ‘‘You can beat a race,
Ut you can’t beat the races.”
“a It's true that most horse play-
i S$ don’t die broke — at .the
Tack, anyway. One track detec-
ae on a well-known American
Cuit recently stated that most

—_. THE

t

of the folks who drop dead at
the track usually have a wad
of greenbacks in their hands,
The excitement of winning a fist-
full proves too much for them.

There’s the: story of one bus
driver who pulls up outside the
race track and invariably turns
to his passengers) and asks,
“Would any of you folks like a
tip on how to make some quick
money?” <A few eager beavers
always shout, “‘Yes.’’ So the
bus jockey replies: ‘Well, then,
stay right on this bus and let
me take you home again.”’

Nobody has ever been known
to follow this sane and sensible
advice, ay lure. of the gallop-

~ SPORTLIGHT

By BERT WHYTE

SITTING ON a slow streetcar watchitig the pedestrians whiz

Y; my thoughts turned to Longacres ‘and the victory of Eddie's

Oy last Saturday. I must have dozed off for a moment, for I

Seemed to be interviewing the famous Canadian horse in his stall

after the race:

ME: Hiya, Boy, guess it feels good to win the big one, eh?

EDDIE'S BOY: Neigh.

ME: TI see you took the overland route 'to win, too. Did you

have any trouble going around all

EDDIE’S BOY: Neigh.

those ‘horses?

i

ME: A few years back when Speed Kermode bought you for
$850, I understand he didn’t know whether 'to try and make a racer
f you. or put you behind a milk wagon. How would you like a
Steady job, eight hours a day between the shafts?

EDDIE’S BOY: Neigh, neigh, a thousand times neigh.

* *

*

SEEMS ‘A SHAME that nobody turned out to welcome the
Vancouver athletes \back from the Olympics. If one of them had
Copped a gold medal at ‘Helsinki you can depend on it, the crowds
8nd brass bands would have been at the station.

Tt isn’t tlhe fault of our athletes that ‘Canada did so poorly in,
World competition. The blame rests on the government’s door-
Step, ‘Contrast the ifine showing made by Hungary, a little country
With a population of 8,000,000. Their athletes collected the third
highest unofificial points score because ‘the Hungarian government
Spends money in developing sports.

Our federal government allocates the miserly sum of $225,000 te

noear to amateur sports, while spending billions on war prepara-

tons,

Champion, the Canadian youth paper, advocates a three-point
Program ifor the development of a nation of young athletes: $10
Million from the federal government as a starter; trade unions,
Youth groups and sports bodies to share this grant; abolition of the
antisports order-in:council (the infamous decree of 1950 which

ars ‘the use of steel “for any purpose connected with recreation

and sport.”)

‘to lose so much,

ing dice is too strong. ;

If you can’t make money at
the track, at least you don’t have
Follow these
tips and they’ll keep you from
losing your shirt:

@® Don’t bet on a horse un-
less the odds are better’ than
even money. Remember that
only 35 percent of favorites win.

@ Don’t pay any attention to
tips. For every good tip you’ll
run into a dozen bad ones.

@ Don’t bet on sprinters in
races.a mile or more in distance,
and don’t bet on route horses in
six-furlong sprints.

@ Don’t play a horse that
hasn’t run for several weeks.
Every, horse needs a couple of
tightening-up rarces.

@ Don’t bet on jockeys, A
good jockey can’t win on a poor
horse. ;

@ Don’t keep playing a los-
ing horse on the theory that
he’s got to win some time. This
is a short road to the poorhouse.

@ Don’t plunge when you
find yourself losing. Always bet

within your means and chalk up
your losses to entertainment.

@ Don’t be a sucker and bet
every race. Wait until a race
comes up where you figure one
horse is outstanding.

It’s a good idea, too, to steer
clear of horses that have pass-
ed their prime. Take the case
of His Brother, one of the most
consistent winners at Lansdowne

and Hastings a few years back.,

His Brother is now eight years
‘old,, but hundreds of racing
fans,,remembering his splendid
record as a four, five and six-
year-old, bet on him for senti-
mental reasons. When His Bro-
ther has his running shoes on he
can still win a few, but he’s.a
poor risk for all that.

Amateurs at the track some-
tinies try the doubling system. If
they lose the first race, they
simply double their original
two-buck bet the next time. If
they lose again, they bet $8 in
an attempt to win back their or-
iginal stake, plus a little extra,’
All right, let’s see where this

alloping dice!

system leads to if they have a
streak of back luck:

First lose? __.......... $ 2.00
Second loser -.....------ 4.00
Third loser. ......--.-.- 8.00
Fourth loser -...-.---- 16.00
Fifth Joser <2... 32.00.
Sixth. Joser 64.00
Seventh lcser ...--...-. 128.00
Eighth loser .....-...... 256.00
Ninth ‘loser, .-.-.-.-..--:- 512.00
Tenth loser --.:-..-..-- ;- 1,024.00
Eleventh loser -...-..- 2,048.00
Twelfth. loser -....-..-. 4,096.00

There’s no need to go on, for
no Pacific Tribune reader has
that kind’ of money to throw
around. (Bot. the lesson is
clear: don’t trying doubling up.

Some folks think that playing
horses to place or show. gives
them a better chance. But the
odds beat you every time. .To
make a profit on place and show
bets the punter has to catch
longshots, no easy feat.

Frankly, there’s only one way
to beat the ra-es, and it’s a
sytsem that can be summed up
in two words: ‘‘Don’t bet.”