George E. Smith (gambler)
Encyclopedia
George Elsworth Smith (1862–1905) was an American
gambler and Thoroughbred
horse racing enthusiast who became a multi-millionaire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Smith was given the nickname "Pittsburgh Phil" in 1885 by Chicago
gambler William "Silver Bill" Riley to differentiate him from the other Smiths that also frequented Riley's pool
halls. Pittsburgh Phil is considered by many handicappers
to have been an expert strategist, winning large sums of money at a time when racing statistic publications, such as The Daily Racing Form, were not widely available. At the time of his death from tuberculosis
in 1905, he had amassed a fortune worth $3,250,000, which is comparable to $US today. His racing Maxims, published posthumously in 1908, are considered to be the foundations of many modern handicapping strategies and formulas.
in 1862 to Elizabeth ("Eliza") and Christian Smith. The Smith family also included two sisters, Annie and Elizabeth, and another son, William C. Smith, that was a few years younger than George Smith. His mother was originally from Ireland
and immigrated to the United States in 1857, and his father was a carpenter from Baden
, Germany
. Eliza remarried after Christian Smith's death in the early 1870s to retail grocer
Edward Downing, who died in the 1880s. She remarried a second time on November 20, 1906 to real estate and coal developer Thomas S. Wood after George Smith's death.
George Smith's sister Anne married and had a son named James Christian McGill (1880–1972). McGill was orphaned at a young age when his parents died in the mid 1880s during an unspecified epidemic and was subsequently raised, along with his infant sister Eleanor, by Mrs. Smith and George Smith. Smith was a notoriously reticent and shy individual that only granted one interview during his lifetime, in which he relayed only information pertaining to racing matters. Consequently, much of the published biographical information on Pittsburgh Phil's early life, his rise to fame and the reasoning behind his methods on the track comes from interviews with his nephew, James McGill, who was a close confidant in the ten years preceding George Smith's death.
from Pittsburgh in the present day area of California-Kirkbride
. George Smith's father died within a year (in late 1872 or 1873), which created financial hardships for his mother and sisters and resulted in George going to work at the age of 12 at the local cork
cutting factory (possibly Armstrong Cork Co.
) for $5 per week. Smith was not happy with this occupation, once remarking on the banality of the profession later in life: "[I] thought [I] could do a little better than cutting corks, inasmuch as [I] knew how to divide six by two." Smith set aside money from his weekly pay (after giving the majority to his mother) to purchase and train gamecocks, hiding the fowl from his devout Roman Catholic mother and sisters who greatly disapproved of gambling. He also bet on the outcomes of National League
baseball
games in Pittsburgh pool halls and would attribute his often sizable winnings to pay raises at the cork factory.
Most of the pool halls in 1870s Pittsburgh also broadcast horse races via telegraph. The often colorful race descriptions soon captured young Smith's attention and he wrote down and stockpiled the names and times of the winning horses for a year to form crude racing charts. In the fall of 1879, Smith placed his first bet on a 5:1 odds horse named Gabriel running in a race at the Brighton Beach racetrack at Coney Island
. He won $38 when the horse won by 2 lengths
but did not show any outward signs of emotion while the race was run. Determined that he could win at horse racing, Smith quit his job at the cork factory and accrued more than $5,000 from betting on horse races in the next two years, hiding the proceeds under his mattress at home. Upon his mother eventually discovering the money, he reasoned with her that he was not really gambling because he was making logical predictions based on the past performances of horses and not merely guessing. By 1885, Smith had become one of the most touted gamblers in Pittsburgh and had won over $100,000 without ever seeing a horse race run firsthand. However, Smith was becoming too famous in Pittsburgh. He could not maintain the favorable, high odds when placing bets that he had attained earlier in his career when he was a virtual unknown because everyone in the crowd would lower the odds by betting his choices.
in which Joe Cotton
was the favorite and won at 4:5 odds, but he did not bet on the outcome. Smith decided that the best gambling prospects at the time were in Chicago
and made his way to William "Silver Bill" Riley's poolroom in late 1885. Riley was a Civil War
veteran from Brooklyn
with prematurely gray hair that owned one of the first clubs in Chicago dedicated to betting on horse racing. It was Riley that saddled Smith with the nickname
"Pittsburgh Phil" on their first meeting to differentiate George Smith's bets from the rest of the "room full of Smiths." Riley usually named his customers based on their appearances, but by McGill's reckoning he chose the name "Pittsburgh Phil" because Smith was from Pittsburgh and Phil was short for Philadelphia. Smith quickly gained a reputation as being one of the most successful "plungers", or men that bet large sums of money on races, in Chicago. Within a few years, he relocated to New York
and focused most of his betting operations out of New York tracks.
colt
named King Cadmus. Smith purchased King Cadmus as a yearling in 1890 for $4,000 at the stable dispersal sale of the late August Belmont
. The colt was a son of Kingfisher
and was a full brother to another popular racehorse named King Crab. The horse only won two races in his entire racing career, but Smith won $195,000 from Cadmus' two victories. The first win occurred on September 3, 1891 at Sheepshead Bay Race Track
and resulted in Smith winning approximately $115,000, which was the largest payout from a horse race recorded in the US
at that time. Cadmus' other win occurred at Morris Park Racetrack in 1892 with Smith netting another $80,000. King Cadmus was a fast runner but he had a vicious temperament, seriously injuring several of Smith's employees, in addition to weak legs and was sold as a three year old in 1892.
Parvenu (sire
d by Uncas, out of Necromancy
) was purchased by Smith in 1891 as a two-year old and was initially considered to be a poor racing prospect by the general public due to his repeated losses early in the season. However, Smith saw potential in the colt and recognized that he could win a large amount of money if the horse could win a race against high odds. On August 29, 1892, Parvenu was entered in a race at Sheepshead Bay and was given 30:1 initial odds by bookmaker
s, which would have won Smith close to $300,000. However all bets had to be rescinded before the start of the race because there was a miscalculation of the horse handicapping weights, causing the odds on Parvenu to drop to 10:1 in the new pool. As a result, Smith only won $50,000. But despite this mishap, Smith was rewarded when the horse won nine consecutive races, netting approximately $200,000 before Parvenu was retired at age four due to a spinal injury.
, Fred Taral
, Edward R. Garrison
and Sam Doggett. However, Smith considered Tod Sloan
to be the best jockey
in his employ and commissioned the rider to race in only his colors from 1895 to 1897. Smith met Sloan in the fall of 1895 at a San Francisco racetrack after Sloan had been suspended for ten days for trying to "beat the barrier", or disregarding the starting barrier
that had recently been adopted at US tracks. Smith was taken with Sloan's unique riding style, later termed the "monkey crouch", that redistributed the rider's weight over the neck and withers
and allowed horses to run faster. However, Smith did not trust the bookmakers at the California tracks and suspected them, as well as the trainers, of rampant cheating and paying off jockeys to not win on certain horses. Consequently, Smith paid Sloan $500 for every race he won, insuring that his jockey would always be trying to win on any of Smith's mounts. Sloan returned to New York with Smith in 1896 where he became one of the top jockeys on the east coast, giving Smith the most profitable years of his career.
Smith soon tired of Sloan's off-track antics, which included lavish parties and often arrogant statements that questioned Smith's judgment on the track. A case in point was Sloan's behavior prior to the running of 1897 Brooklyn Handicap
which occurred over a sloppy, mud-laden track that year. Sloan had won several races on Belmar
, a gray 5-year old by Belvidere, and felt confident that the horse would win the Brooklyn Handicap, openly criticizing Smith's choice of Howard Mann in front of his other employees. However, Smith knew that Belmar was not a fast runner in the mud and that Sloan would not push the horse to win because he disliked being splattered with mud. Smith instead put Skeets Martin
, who was better at racing on sloppy tracks, on the 4-year old Howard Mann. He advised Martin to, "Use your own judgment with this horse, and don't bother about Belmar. Tod probably won't be anywhere near you after the first hundred yards." Howard Mann won easily, winning $50,000 for Smith, while Belmar finished in 8th place. When James R. Keene
asked Smith in late 1897 for permission to take Sloan to England
to race in the Cambridgeshire Handicap
, Smith accepted the offer. Sloan achieved great success while racing in England
, but he lost his racing license permanently in 1900. Sloan and Smith remained friends after dissolving their partnership, the later loaning Sloan $5,000 without interest after his license was revoked. After Sloan's departure, Smith used Skeets Martin as his principal jockey, but in 1899 Martin also left the US for better racing prospects in England. Willie Shaw was ultimately hired to replace Sloan and raced for Smith from 1899 until 1903.
for presumed "listless" riding on Illyria at a May 6 race at the Jamaica Racetrack. On June 24, 1903, Smith was also banned from entering his horses in races overseen by The Jockey Club. He admitted to no wrongdoing, and he suspected the ban was a hold-over from Willie Shaw's suspension and resulted from The Jockey Club's increased efforts to remove plungers from their tracks. Smith continued to make bets, notably securing $60,000 when Africander won the 1903 Suburban Handicap
, but had sold his stable to E.E Smatters by the end of the year.
by his family. He was adamant about not bringing women to racetracks, even his own mother, including a reference to their distracting influence on men in his Maxims.
However, Smith did court Daisy Dixon, an aspiring actress and chorus girl
from Chicago, in 1896. The courtship turned sour after he caught her cavorting with his jockey and notorious ladies man Tod Sloan
. Dixon later married fellow gambler, Riley Grannan, who eventually died broke in Rawhide, Nevada
in 1908. According to McGill, Smith never had an interest in another woman after Dixon's betrayal.
or impediments (i.e. loose girth
straps) that may have negatively impacted a horse's speed. As he became more famous and seemingly successful, bookmakers would often refuse to place his bets outright for fear of losing money when he won. As a result, Smith conducted most of his betting through "beards", or men that he would commission to place bets for him. Smith tried to keep the identity of his beards a secret and never revealed their identities, even to his other commissioners. His movements were continuously followed by agents for the bookmakers and by the Pinkerton detectives employed by The Jockey Club.
Smith rarely wrote down his bets and relied on his memory to serve him when he won and had to collect his money from the numerous commissioners that placed his bets with the bookmakers.
to rest. His family assumed that his "nerves" were affected from the stress of his and Shaw's suspension from racing, but Smith had also developed a persistent cough by the early months of 1904.
He made his last bet, 4:1 on High Chancellor, at the Sheepshead Bay racetrack during the summer of 1904 and won $2,000.
In October 1904, Smith traveled to the Winyah Sanitarium in Asheville, North Carolina
for treatment of his worsening cough, a result of advanced tuberculosis
. George E. Smith died at the sanitarium on February 1, 1905. His death was attributed to "shattering of his nerves", instead of tuberculosis, due to his habit of never showing emotion. Smith was interred in Uniondale Cemetery in Pittsburgh, a short distance from his childhood home in Allegheny. His funeral occurred on February 5 during a snowstorm and was attended by many people. He was entombed in a stone mausoleum
that reportedly cost $30,000 to build and was built to Smith's specifications seven years before his death. His mother later commissioned a statue in his likeness and placed it on top of the mausoleum. The statue depicts Smith, hatless and wearing a suit, looking toward Pittsburgh while clutching a racing form.
Smith's net worth, including real estate and stocks
and bond
s, was $3,250,000, and as he had no will his estate was divided equally among his mother, brother, nephew (James McGill) and niece (Eleanor Ewing). William Smith and James McGill later moved to Indianapolis
in 1913 after purchasing the Indianapolis Baseball Club for $150,000. George Smith
, the 1916 Kentucky Derby
winner, was named after Pittsburgh Phil because he had once owned the colt's dam, Consuelo II. His racing Maxims, gleaned from his only interview with Edward Cole a few years before his death, are still considered valid by modern handicappers.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
gambler and Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
horse racing enthusiast who became a multi-millionaire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Smith was given the nickname "Pittsburgh Phil" in 1885 by Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
gambler William "Silver Bill" Riley to differentiate him from the other Smiths that also frequented Riley's pool
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
halls. Pittsburgh Phil is considered by many handicappers
Handicapping
Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning. The word also applies to the various methods by which the advantage is calculated...
to have been an expert strategist, winning large sums of money at a time when racing statistic publications, such as The Daily Racing Form, were not widely available. At the time of his death from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
in 1905, he had amassed a fortune worth $3,250,000, which is comparable to $US today. His racing Maxims, published posthumously in 1908, are considered to be the foundations of many modern handicapping strategies and formulas.
Family
George Elsworth Smith was born in Sewickley, PennsylvaniaSewickley, Pennsylvania
Sewickley is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, west northwest of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River. It is a residential suburb of Pittsburgh. The population was 3,827 at the 2010 census...
in 1862 to Elizabeth ("Eliza") and Christian Smith. The Smith family also included two sisters, Annie and Elizabeth, and another son, William C. Smith, that was a few years younger than George Smith. His mother was originally from Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and immigrated to the United States in 1857, and his father was a carpenter from Baden
Baden
Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Eliza remarried after Christian Smith's death in the early 1870s to retail grocer
Grocer
A grocer is a bulk seller of food. Beginning as early as the 14th century, a grocer was a dealer in comestible dry goods such as spices, pepper, sugar, and cocoa, tea and coffee...
Edward Downing, who died in the 1880s. She remarried a second time on November 20, 1906 to real estate and coal developer Thomas S. Wood after George Smith's death.
George Smith's sister Anne married and had a son named James Christian McGill (1880–1972). McGill was orphaned at a young age when his parents died in the mid 1880s during an unspecified epidemic and was subsequently raised, along with his infant sister Eleanor, by Mrs. Smith and George Smith. Smith was a notoriously reticent and shy individual that only granted one interview during his lifetime, in which he relayed only information pertaining to racing matters. Consequently, much of the published biographical information on Pittsburgh Phil's early life, his rise to fame and the reasoning behind his methods on the track comes from interviews with his nephew, James McGill, who was a close confidant in the ten years preceding George Smith's death.
Cork cutting and early sporting exploits
The Smith family initially lived on a small farm in Sewickley, but moved in 1872 to Allegheny City when George Smith was 10 years old. The Smiths eventually settled in the neighborhood of Pleasant Valley, which was located across the Ohio RiverOhio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
from Pittsburgh in the present day area of California-Kirkbride
California-Kirkbride (Pittsburgh)
California-Kirkbride is a neighborhood on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's North Side.The neighborhood consists of a wedge of land between the railroad tracks at the northern edge of Manchester and a steep hill at the southern edges of Brightwood and Perry Hilltop...
. George Smith's father died within a year (in late 1872 or 1873), which created financial hardships for his mother and sisters and resulted in George going to work at the age of 12 at the local cork
Cork (material)
Cork is an impermeable, buoyant material, a prime-subset of bark tissue that is harvested for commercial use primarily from Quercus suber , which is endemic to southwest Europe and northwest Africa...
cutting factory (possibly Armstrong Cork Co.
Armstrong World Industries
Armstrong World Industries, Inc. is an international designer and manufacturer of floors, ceilings and cabinets. Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Armstrong operates 40 plants in 10 countries and has approximately 12,300 employees worldwide. In 2006, Armstrong’s net sales were $3.42 billion, with...
) for $5 per week. Smith was not happy with this occupation, once remarking on the banality of the profession later in life: "[I] thought [I] could do a little better than cutting corks, inasmuch as [I] knew how to divide six by two." Smith set aside money from his weekly pay (after giving the majority to his mother) to purchase and train gamecocks, hiding the fowl from his devout Roman Catholic mother and sisters who greatly disapproved of gambling. He also bet on the outcomes of National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
games in Pittsburgh pool halls and would attribute his often sizable winnings to pay raises at the cork factory.
Most of the pool halls in 1870s Pittsburgh also broadcast horse races via telegraph. The often colorful race descriptions soon captured young Smith's attention and he wrote down and stockpiled the names and times of the winning horses for a year to form crude racing charts. In the fall of 1879, Smith placed his first bet on a 5:1 odds horse named Gabriel running in a race at the Brighton Beach racetrack at Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
. He won $38 when the horse won by 2 lengths
Length (horse racing)
A horse length, or simply length, is a unit of measurement that refers to the length of a horse from nose to tail, approximately 8 feet, It is commonly used in Thoroughbred horse racing, where it describes the distance between horses in a race...
but did not show any outward signs of emotion while the race was run. Determined that he could win at horse racing, Smith quit his job at the cork factory and accrued more than $5,000 from betting on horse races in the next two years, hiding the proceeds under his mattress at home. Upon his mother eventually discovering the money, he reasoned with her that he was not really gambling because he was making logical predictions based on the past performances of horses and not merely guessing. By 1885, Smith had become one of the most touted gamblers in Pittsburgh and had won over $100,000 without ever seeing a horse race run firsthand. However, Smith was becoming too famous in Pittsburgh. He could not maintain the favorable, high odds when placing bets that he had attained earlier in his career when he was a virtual unknown because everyone in the crowd would lower the odds by betting his choices.
A new name
The first horse race that Smith witnessed live was the 1885 Kentucky DerbyKentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
in which Joe Cotton
Joe Cotton (horse)
Joe Cotton was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that is best known as the winner of the 1885 Kentucky Derby. He was by King Alfonso who was the sire of the 1880 winner Fonso...
was the favorite and won at 4:5 odds, but he did not bet on the outcome. Smith decided that the best gambling prospects at the time were in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and made his way to William "Silver Bill" Riley's poolroom in late 1885. Riley was a Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
veteran from Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
with prematurely gray hair that owned one of the first clubs in Chicago dedicated to betting on horse racing. It was Riley that saddled Smith with the nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
"Pittsburgh Phil" on their first meeting to differentiate George Smith's bets from the rest of the "room full of Smiths." Riley usually named his customers based on their appearances, but by McGill's reckoning he chose the name "Pittsburgh Phil" because Smith was from Pittsburgh and Phil was short for Philadelphia. Smith quickly gained a reputation as being one of the most successful "plungers", or men that bet large sums of money on races, in Chicago. Within a few years, he relocated to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and focused most of his betting operations out of New York tracks.
King Cadmus and Parvenu
Smith also purchased and raced Thoroughbred horses under the name Pleasant Valley Stable. His racing colors during the early 1890s were royal-purple and canary yellow. Smith's brother, Bill, became his principal horse trainer during the 1890s and early 1900s. One of his most successful horses was a two-year old bayBay (color)
Bay is a hair coat color of horses, characterized by a reddish brown body color with a black mane, tail, ear edges, and lower legs. Bay is one of the most common coat colors in many horse breeds....
colt
Colt (horse)
A colt is a young male horse, under the age of four. The term "colt" is often confused with foal, which refers to a horse of either sex under one year of age....
named King Cadmus. Smith purchased King Cadmus as a yearling in 1890 for $4,000 at the stable dispersal sale of the late August Belmont
August Belmont
August Belmont, Sr. was an American politician.-Early life:August Belmont was born in Alzey, Hesse, on December 8, 1813--some sources say 1816--to Simon and Frederika Elsass Schönberg, a Jewish family. After his mother's death, when he was seven, he lived with his uncle and grandmother in Frankfurt...
. The colt was a son of Kingfisher
Kingfisher (horse)
Kingfisher was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1870 Belmont Stakes.Kingfisher was bred by Robert A. Alexander at his Woodburn Stud in Woodford County, Kentucky, Kingfisher was out of the imported mare Eltham Lass, a daughter of Kingston. Kingfisher's sire was Lexington...
and was a full brother to another popular racehorse named King Crab. The horse only won two races in his entire racing career, but Smith won $195,000 from Cadmus' two victories. The first win occurred on September 3, 1891 at Sheepshead Bay Race Track
Sheepshead Bay Race Track
Sheepshead Bay Race Track was an American Thoroughbred horse racing facility built on the site of the Coney Island Jockey Club at Sheepshead Bay, New York...
and resulted in Smith winning approximately $115,000, which was the largest payout from a horse race recorded in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
at that time. Cadmus' other win occurred at Morris Park Racetrack in 1892 with Smith netting another $80,000. King Cadmus was a fast runner but he had a vicious temperament, seriously injuring several of Smith's employees, in addition to weak legs and was sold as a three year old in 1892.
Parvenu (sire
Sire
Sire may refer to:* Father, the counterpart of a dam, particularly in animal breeding. See also stallion* James W. Sire, author on worldviews* Sire Records, a record label* Sire Advertising, an advertising agency...
d by Uncas, out of Necromancy
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
) was purchased by Smith in 1891 as a two-year old and was initially considered to be a poor racing prospect by the general public due to his repeated losses early in the season. However, Smith saw potential in the colt and recognized that he could win a large amount of money if the horse could win a race against high odds. On August 29, 1892, Parvenu was entered in a race at Sheepshead Bay and was given 30:1 initial odds by bookmaker
Bookmaker
A bookmaker, or bookie, is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds.- Range of events :...
s, which would have won Smith close to $300,000. However all bets had to be rescinded before the start of the race because there was a miscalculation of the horse handicapping weights, causing the odds on Parvenu to drop to 10:1 in the new pool. As a result, Smith only won $50,000. But despite this mishap, Smith was rewarded when the horse won nine consecutive races, netting approximately $200,000 before Parvenu was retired at age four due to a spinal injury.
Professional relationship with Tod Sloan
Smith employed several jockeys on a race-to-race basis during his career as a Thoroughbred owner, including Henry "Skeets" MartinSkeets Martin
John Henry Martin , commonly referred to as "Skeets" Martin, was an American jockey who achieved many racing wins in the United States and the United Kingdom during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His most notable race wins were the 1902 Epsom Derby on Ard Patrick and the 1903...
, Fred Taral
Fred Taral
Fred Taral was an American Hall of Fame jockey.Taral began his career in racing in the 1880s at small racetracks in Oklahoma. By 1889 he was among the 24-member jockey colony at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans and competed in his first Kentucky Derby...
, Edward R. Garrison
Edward R. Garrison
Edward R. "Snapper" Garrison , was a jockey known for hanging back during most of the race and finishing at top speed to achieve a thrilling victory....
and Sam Doggett. However, Smith considered Tod Sloan
Tod Sloan (jockey)
James Forman "Tod" Sloan was an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.-Early life and U.S. racing career:...
to be the best jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...
in his employ and commissioned the rider to race in only his colors from 1895 to 1897. Smith met Sloan in the fall of 1895 at a San Francisco racetrack after Sloan had been suspended for ten days for trying to "beat the barrier", or disregarding the starting barrier
Starting barrier
A starting barrier ensures a fair start to races such as horse races or dog races.- Horse racing :Throughout the history of horse racing, there have been proposals as to how better to start a race. A commonly used starting system for horse races was devised in the mid nineteenth century by Admiral...
that had recently been adopted at US tracks. Smith was taken with Sloan's unique riding style, later termed the "monkey crouch", that redistributed the rider's weight over the neck and withers
Withers
The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of a four-legged animal. In many species it is the tallest point of the body, and in horses and dogs it is the standard place to measure the animal's height .-Horses:The withers in horses are formed by the dorsal spinal processes of roughly the...
and allowed horses to run faster. However, Smith did not trust the bookmakers at the California tracks and suspected them, as well as the trainers, of rampant cheating and paying off jockeys to not win on certain horses. Consequently, Smith paid Sloan $500 for every race he won, insuring that his jockey would always be trying to win on any of Smith's mounts. Sloan returned to New York with Smith in 1896 where he became one of the top jockeys on the east coast, giving Smith the most profitable years of his career.
Smith soon tired of Sloan's off-track antics, which included lavish parties and often arrogant statements that questioned Smith's judgment on the track. A case in point was Sloan's behavior prior to the running of 1897 Brooklyn Handicap
Brooklyn Handicap
The Brooklyn Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in early June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, on Long Island. It currently is a Grade II event open to three-year-olds and up willing to race one and one-half miles on dirt....
which occurred over a sloppy, mud-laden track that year. Sloan had won several races on Belmar
Belmar (horse)
Belmar was an American Thoroughbred racehorse owned by the Preakness Stables of Preakness, New Jersey.Trained by Edward Feakes, future U.S...
, a gray 5-year old by Belvidere, and felt confident that the horse would win the Brooklyn Handicap, openly criticizing Smith's choice of Howard Mann in front of his other employees. However, Smith knew that Belmar was not a fast runner in the mud and that Sloan would not push the horse to win because he disliked being splattered with mud. Smith instead put Skeets Martin
Skeets Martin
John Henry Martin , commonly referred to as "Skeets" Martin, was an American jockey who achieved many racing wins in the United States and the United Kingdom during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His most notable race wins were the 1902 Epsom Derby on Ard Patrick and the 1903...
, who was better at racing on sloppy tracks, on the 4-year old Howard Mann. He advised Martin to, "Use your own judgment with this horse, and don't bother about Belmar. Tod probably won't be anywhere near you after the first hundred yards." Howard Mann won easily, winning $50,000 for Smith, while Belmar finished in 8th place. When James R. Keene
James R. Keene
James Robert Keene was a Wall Street stock broker and a major thoroughbred race horse owner and breeder.-Biography:He was born in London, England in 1838. He was fourteen years of age when his family emigrated to the United States in 1852...
asked Smith in late 1897 for permission to take Sloan to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to race in the Cambridgeshire Handicap
Cambridgeshire Handicap
The Cambridgeshire Handicap is a flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run on the Rowley Mile at Newmarket over a distance of 1 mile and 1 furlong , and it is scheduled to take place each year in late September or early October.The event...
, Smith accepted the offer. Sloan achieved great success while racing in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, but he lost his racing license permanently in 1900. Sloan and Smith remained friends after dissolving their partnership, the later loaning Sloan $5,000 without interest after his license was revoked. After Sloan's departure, Smith used Skeets Martin as his principal jockey, but in 1899 Martin also left the US for better racing prospects in England. Willie Shaw was ultimately hired to replace Sloan and raced for Smith from 1899 until 1903.
Suspension
Smith kept few horses in 1902 and consequently allowed James R. Keene to employ Willie Shaw for much of the season. While his overall percentage of wins was still high, Shaw lost some races in a way that the general public thought was suspicious and he was accused of not trying to win. Shaw's poor performance was soon linked to some action on Smith's part and he was accused of paying the jockey to lose, a claim which Smith vehemently denied. In May 1903, Shaw was suspended by The Jockey ClubThe Jockey Club
The Jockey Club, formed on February 9, 1894, is the keeper of The American Stud Book. It came into existence after James R. Keene spearheaded a drive in support of racehorse trainers who had complained about the Board of Control that governed racing in New York State.-History:On its formation, The...
for presumed "listless" riding on Illyria at a May 6 race at the Jamaica Racetrack. On June 24, 1903, Smith was also banned from entering his horses in races overseen by The Jockey Club. He admitted to no wrongdoing, and he suspected the ban was a hold-over from Willie Shaw's suspension and resulted from The Jockey Club's increased efforts to remove plungers from their tracks. Smith continued to make bets, notably securing $60,000 when Africander won the 1903 Suburban Handicap
Suburban Handicap
The Suburban Handicap is an American Grade II Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Open to horses age three and older, it is run at the classic one-and-one-quarter mile distance on dirt for a $400,000 purse....
, but had sold his stable to E.E Smatters by the end of the year.
Personal life
Smith lived in moderation compared to other horsemen of the era, with the only outward display of ostentation being a diamond ring that he would wear to track engagements. Smith also did not smoke and only drank an occasional glass of wine. He socialized with very few women and was considered to be a confirmed bachelorBachelor
A bachelor is a man above the age of majority who has never been married . Unlike his female counterpart, the spinster, a bachelor may have had children...
by his family. He was adamant about not bringing women to racetracks, even his own mother, including a reference to their distracting influence on men in his Maxims.
- "A man who wishes to be successful cannot divide his attentions between horses and women. A man who accepts the responsibility of escorting a woman to the race track, and of seeing that she is comfortably placed and agreeably entertained, cannot keep his mind on his work before him...A sensible woman understands this and cannot feel hurt at my words."
However, Smith did court Daisy Dixon, an aspiring actress and chorus girl
Chorus Girl
A chorus girl is a female performer in a chorus or chorus line.It may also refer to:*Chorus Girl , a compilation from Atomic Records*Chorus Girls , a 1981 musical*"The Chorus Girl", a story by Anton Chekhov...
from Chicago, in 1896. The courtship turned sour after he caught her cavorting with his jockey and notorious ladies man Tod Sloan
Tod Sloan (jockey)
James Forman "Tod" Sloan was an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.-Early life and U.S. racing career:...
. Dixon later married fellow gambler, Riley Grannan, who eventually died broke in Rawhide, Nevada
Rawhide, Nevada
Rawhide, Nevada was a town in Mineral County, Nevada, approximately 55 miles southeast of Fallon. The site of Rawhide has been obliterated by recent mining activity, with little or nothing remaining to be seen.-History:...
in 1908. According to McGill, Smith never had an interest in another woman after Dixon's betrayal.
Methods
Smith took notice of every detail in horse racing. He kept detailed notes of which horses were good runners during muddy conditions and always inspected horses at the end of a race to look for subtle signs of lamenessLameness (equine)
Lameness in horses and other equidae is a term used to refer to any number of conditions where the animal fails to travel in a regular and sound manner on all four feet...
or impediments (i.e. loose girth
Girth (tack)
A girth, sometimes called a cinch , is a piece of equipment used to keep the saddle in place on a horse or other animal. It passes under the barrel of the equine, usually attached to the saddle on both sides by two or three leather straps called billets...
straps) that may have negatively impacted a horse's speed. As he became more famous and seemingly successful, bookmakers would often refuse to place his bets outright for fear of losing money when he won. As a result, Smith conducted most of his betting through "beards", or men that he would commission to place bets for him. Smith tried to keep the identity of his beards a secret and never revealed their identities, even to his other commissioners. His movements were continuously followed by agents for the bookmakers and by the Pinkerton detectives employed by The Jockey Club.
- "They wanted to know everything I did and was going to do. That never made me mad because it was business on their part just as it was business for me to mislead the spies. I rarely have been able to keep the same set of betting commissioners for any length of time. A few bets and my commissioners were pointed out and watched."
Smith rarely wrote down his bets and relied on his memory to serve him when he won and had to collect his money from the numerous commissioners that placed his bets with the bookmakers.
Death and legacy
By the fall of 1903, Smith began curtailing his turf activities for frequent trips to the Adirondacks and Hot SpringsHot Springs, Arkansas
Hot Springs is the 10th most populous city in the U.S. state of Arkansas, the county seat of Garland County, and the principal city of the Hot Springs Metropolitan Statistical Area encompassing all of Garland County...
to rest. His family assumed that his "nerves" were affected from the stress of his and Shaw's suspension from racing, but Smith had also developed a persistent cough by the early months of 1904.
He made his last bet, 4:1 on High Chancellor, at the Sheepshead Bay racetrack during the summer of 1904 and won $2,000.
In October 1904, Smith traveled to the Winyah Sanitarium in Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville, North Carolina
Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...
for treatment of his worsening cough, a result of advanced tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. George E. Smith died at the sanitarium on February 1, 1905. His death was attributed to "shattering of his nerves", instead of tuberculosis, due to his habit of never showing emotion. Smith was interred in Uniondale Cemetery in Pittsburgh, a short distance from his childhood home in Allegheny. His funeral occurred on February 5 during a snowstorm and was attended by many people. He was entombed in a stone mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...
that reportedly cost $30,000 to build and was built to Smith's specifications seven years before his death. His mother later commissioned a statue in his likeness and placed it on top of the mausoleum. The statue depicts Smith, hatless and wearing a suit, looking toward Pittsburgh while clutching a racing form.
Smith's net worth, including real estate and stocks
Stocks
Stocks are devices used in the medieval and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by...
and bond
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
s, was $3,250,000, and as he had no will his estate was divided equally among his mother, brother, nephew (James McGill) and niece (Eleanor Ewing). William Smith and James McGill later moved to Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
in 1913 after purchasing the Indianapolis Baseball Club for $150,000. George Smith
George Smith (horse)
George Smith was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and was the winner of the 1916 Kentucky Derby. George Smith was a jet black colt by the imported British Stallion Out of Reach by the imported British mare, Consuelo II. His grandsire, Persimmon, was a son of the great English racer and sire, St....
, the 1916 Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
winner, was named after Pittsburgh Phil because he had once owned the colt's dam, Consuelo II. His racing Maxims, gleaned from his only interview with Edward Cole a few years before his death, are still considered valid by modern handicappers.