The Detroit Times

THE DETROIT
TIMES, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1914.

Tod Sloan Leaped From Stable Boy
To Premier Jockey In Two Seasons

By HUGH S. FULLERTON.

CHAPTER II.

There came onto the race tracks of
the central west in the middle nine-
ties a quiet, little fellow, bright of eye,
quick of manner, weighing about 90
pounds and in build a miniature
Adonis. He rode in selling races at
Latonia, at New Orleans, at Memphis
and St. Louis and finally he reached
Chicago.

The mounts that were given him
were second-class, but he commenced
winning. His brother had already
established himself as a jockey, and
the little apprentice boy rider quickly
attracted attention. There were after-
ward a dozen who claimed to have
discovered Tod Sloan, and perhaps
they all noticed at once that he was a
rider of exceptional merit.

His peculiar style of riding a horse
evoked comment even from those who
knew nothing of horses. He sat far
forward, his knee held tightly just
behind the shoulder muscles of the
horse, his little body tilted forward
until he really sat on the base of the
horse's neck, his head alongside the
horse's until he almost could whisper
into the ear of his mount.

His phenomenal success in handling
horses, his success especially with
horses rated as bad actors and his
quick decision and daring won races.
Because he was good looking and
so small he became the pet of the
tracks around Chicago, and his long
string of victories won for him an-
other following. In his first season
he was a popular idol and in his first
appearance in the east the crowds
went crazy over him. He was tied
in a contract that guaranteed him a
prince's income, and his outside
mounts often earned him more than
$1,000 a race.

From the little apprentice boy, rid-
ing on half-mile tracks to a premier
jockey in two years was a consider-
able leap. But at the first it did not
spoil Tod Sloan. He was still a "kid"
and in the jockey room, among the
tiny slaves of the pig skin, he was
just a boy having fun. Money meant
little to him.

He was yet to learn that beyond
the jockeys, the owners and the
horses which he loved, there was a
bigger thing-money. The taint of
the gambler had not touched him then,
as it did both him and his brother
later when they came to know the
corrupting evils of the books.

In his second season he was given
almost the choice of mounts on the
western tracks, and he was engaged
in the east for the great races at
Sheepshead, at Saratoga and at Brigh-
ton. He rode in the American Derby,
led the way in one Futurity and won a
Metropolitan.

Fortunes poured in upon him. His
income in those years must have been
close to $100,000 in fees and salary.
It is small wonder that, with a valet
to wait upon him, trainers to handle
him, men of millions and women of
beauty seeking him, that he was car-
ried away.

He fell for the bright lights. It was
not long before the jockey club ste-
wards commenced to worry.
Sloan, premier jockey of the world,
was commencing to love the money
more than he loved the horses.