30 RACEALONG 



A SPORTING WAGER 



Almost everybody has seen a sporting wager. The 

 most unusual that crossed my line of vision was a 

 game of billiards for two stallions, one of which cost 

 $28,000 at public auction. This occurred in the lat- 

 ter part of the eighties when I was connected with 

 a newspaper in New York. 



At that time I had a regular assignment to go to 

 Parkville Farm Saturday to pick up a few items of 

 news in connection with the horses which John H. 

 Shults had on his farm located in that suburb. In 

 those days a trip from New York to Parkville was 

 a very fair journey. After crossing Brooklyn Bridge 

 in a cable car it was necessary to take a surface car 

 to Greenwood Cemetery and from that point travel 

 on the Coney Island railroad which stopped at Park- 

 ville and a few other points. 



On the day the sporting wager was made I found 

 W. H. Wilson of Cynthiana, Kentucky, at Parkville 

 Farm. At that time he was one of the leading breed- 

 ers, his establishment being Abdallah Park. Its pro- 

 prietor was also usually referred to as Cynthiana 

 Wilson to distinguish him from another branch of the 

 Wilson family located at Rushville, Ind., where its 

 members made horse history with the get of Blue 

 Bull. 



Kentucky owed W. H. Wilson a debt of gratitude 

 so far as the horse interests were concerned as he 

 took George Wilkes to that state while he also led 

 the way towards organizing the Kentucky Trotting 



