CHAPTER IV 



START IN NEW YORK 



A Westerner Grafting— Meeting Jack MacDonald— A Three-handed 

 Match— " Mac's '-'- Suspicions— Getting Even— Days and Nights 

 with Mr Fleischman— Control of Stable 



What was practically my permanent arrival in the 

 East brought no brass bands on the scene, and the 

 newspapers took no kind of notice of me. Although 

 I had been successful in other places they saw no 

 reason to believe in me. 



To begin with I went out to live at the Woodman- 

 stone Inn in Westchester near the old Morris Park 

 track and hung about living quietly on the off- 

 chance of getting a mount ; but no one hurried 

 to offer me one. I was comfortable about money, 

 at all events, for a few months ahead. The people 

 in the neighbourhood gave me the cold shoulder. 

 They thought I was simply there hustling and trying 

 to get a chance ride. In fact one of them described 

 me as a "bum jockey from the West who was 

 grafting." 



At that time there were six or seven hundred horses 

 being trained in the district and I would go out in the 

 morning and keep myself fit by riding some of them. 

 Nothing turned up for a time, but I gritted my teeth 

 and determined to get there. One day two odd rides 

 came my way. I knew nothing about either of them, 

 and didn't see the owners. The first was a horse named 

 Runaway. I won on him and then got up on the 

 second, a filly belonging to Mr MacDonald. She was 



31 



