NO FRIENDSHIP IN RACING 



the matter of buying out of selling races. I had a 

 horse named Rubicon for whom I paid seventeen 

 hundred dollars. He ran in " Pittsburg Phil's " name 

 and colours, and I won five straight races on him, 

 eventually putting him in a high-class selling race 

 worth five thousand dollars. I rode and won. Griffin 

 plugged away at the bidding and eventually had 

 Rubicon knocked down to him for four thousand five 

 hundred dollars. Of course I never dreamed he would 

 go on, nor could I realise that anyone would pay so 

 much for a plater. I don't think I ever came quite 

 so near crying over anything in my life, but I re- 

 membered then all that Griffin had said to me 

 previously. All he added now was : " I'm sorry. Tod ; 

 I'm your friend and I'm also a friend of Phil's, but I 

 always told you what I'd do." Nothing would shake 

 him. He wouldn't sell me the horse back. " Racing 

 is a business," he answered when I asked him. " I 

 had my bit of grief the day I lost that favourite horse 

 of mine. It's no good talking ; you mustn't keep up 

 a grudge against me, for I'd sooner be a friend than 

 otherwise, but I'd do exactly the same thing to- 

 morrow if you had something else in a race which I 

 wanted." 



Of course the big fellows used to get a bit mad with 

 him at times, but Griffin was fearless and didn't pay 

 the slightest heed when it was whispered to him that 

 he had better be careful. He always relied on his 

 stock saying that business was business, and he refused 

 to be talked out of his new method. Many others 

 have had a similar experience. Of course in cases 

 where horses are bought or claimed it has often 

 been a matter of private grievances coming out, 

 but Griffin never bore the slightest animosity against 

 anybody : all names were the same to him. 



221 



