160 CANADIAN TURF RECOLLECTIONS 



THE PEEACHEE AND JACK VANDAL. 



I remember a very funny incident that occurred many 

 years ago in the grand stand at the Hamilton track in a 

 race won by Jack Vandal. A preacher had strayed into 

 the ranks of the ungodly and was seated, along with a 

 friend, an interested spectator of the races, not far from 

 where I was located. A noisy fellow was shouting a desire 

 to lay twenty-five dollars to ten that Vandal wouldn 't win 

 the heat, and was particularly pressing upon the preacher 

 to have a shy at it. The offer was refused, however, with 

 the declaration, ''I'm not a betting man, sir. I hate 

 gambling." Soon the flag went down and as the race 

 progressed the noisy gambler kept on shouting: "I'll lay 

 $25 to $10 Vandal don't win the heat." At the quarter 

 Vandal was fourth, at the half he was third, and still the 

 25 to 10 was shouted. As they swung around the upper 

 turn into the home stretch, the preacher, whose tall form 

 gave him a bit the best of it in a neck-craning match, 

 noticed that Vandal was up even with the leader and with 

 sparkling eyes yelled to his friend, "John, take him up, 

 take him up ; take 25 to 10, take 20 to 10, take anything 

 you can get, and by Jupiter I'll go you halves." At this 

 moment Vandal swept under the wire, winner of the heat 

 by half a length, and a roar of laughter on the stand 

 warned the preacher that the crowd had caught on to his 

 lapse from morality. 



