The Gambler and the Bug Boy: 1939 Los Angeles and the Untold Story of a Horse Racing Fix - Hardcover

Christgau, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803211228 ISBN 13: 9780803211223

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2007

Synopsis

“Scandal on the Turf!” the Los Angeles Times proclaimed. It was October 1940, a mere few months after Seabiscuit had won the Santa Anita Derby, and now this bombshell: “Six Jockeys Admit Horse Races Fixed.”

 

The Gambler and the Bug Boy recounts this dark chapter in horse racing history. At its center is Bernard “Big” Mooney, a flashy L.A. bookmaker who began his seedy career by threatening young jockeys with death if they didn’t “pull” their horses. His unwilling partner is Albert Siler, a callow, eighteen-year-old apprentice rider (a so-called bug boy) from eastern Oregon. John Christgau tells how Big Mooney manipulated this promising rider and how Siler tried to escape the gambler’s criminal grip without ruining his career. Christgau's book gives all the harrowing details of the unraveling plot and the botched court case that followed which riveted the attention of the nation. Told in full for the first time, this story brings to light a little-known but important horse racing scandal.

About this title

About the Author

John Christgau (1934–2018) is the author of several works, including The Origins of the Jumpshot: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball, and Tricksters in the Madhouse: Lakers vs. Globetrotters, 1948, both available in Bison Books editions.

Reviews

Christgau unveils the dark underbelly of late 1930s horse racing in this melancholy, occasionally meandering history. Early on we meet Albert Siler, aka "Prince Albert," an 18-year-old with stars in his eyes and a stunning horse racing debut: the first day he rode a thoroughbred, he "won five races that afternoon." Professional horse racing takes him to a California racetrack where he runs into Barney "Big" Mooney, a flamboyant professional gambler in "fancy suits and a fedora," who combines the lure of easy money with strong-armed tactics to enlist Al and other young jockeys in a race-fixing scheme. The result was the "worst scandal in racing in 50 years," what one attorney called "the contamination of the sport of kings." Christgau is skilled at making memorable characters from his subjects, so much so that he wastes significant space developing characters with little bearing on the story, and an abrupt, pat ending will leave readers scratching their heads. Though inconsistent, history-minded handicappers will find much to appreciate.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803211228
• ISBN 13: 9780803211223
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 254