Celebrated by the press, feared by bookmakers, the legendary Pittsburg Phil scored spectacular riches with methods that resonate more than a century later. The shop began as Gambler's Book Club in 1964, with Luckman envisioning 'not just a bookstore, but a library of gambling and a forum for gamblers to gather and visit, argue, gossip, lie, and - most of all - learn from each other'. After 45 years the shop moved from South 11th to 1550 Tropicana which instantly expanded their retail space and improved their location with better parking.

QFrom Holly Young: I love your site and have found it most helpful in many instances. I was wondering if you could possibly find out the origin of the term shoe in, meaning someone will win for sure.

A This one is spelled wrongly so often that it’s likely it will eventually end up that way. The correct form is shoo-in, usually with a hyphen. It has been known in that spelling and with the meaning of a certain winner from the 1930s. It came from horse racing, where a shoo-in was the winner of a rigged race.

In turn that seems to have come from the verb shoo, meaning to drive a person or an animal in a given direction by making noises or gestures, which in turn comes from the noise people often make when they do it.

Racing Maxims And Methods Of Pittsburgh Philharmonic

The shift to the horse racing sense seems to have occurred sometime in the early 1900s. C E Smith made it clear how it came about in his Racing Maxims and Methods of Pittsburgh Phil in 1908: “There were many times presumably that ‘Tod’ would win through such manipulations, being ‘shooed in’, as it were”.

Racing maxims and methods of 'Pittsburg Phil' (George E. Smith): complete system as employed by the most successful speculator in the history of the American turf; condensed wisdom of twenty years' experience on the track from the only personal interviews ever given by the famous horseman. From Kentuckiana Digital Library.

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Title page from the first edition of Racing Maxims and Methods of Pittsburg Phil, published in 1908

It’s about that time of year when I do a post about Pittsburg Phil. One of my favorite eras of racing history is the era of the public horseplayer — men whose exploits in the betting ring were reported right alongside reports of the actual racing.

If you look at race reporting from approximately 1895 to 1905, it usually included the activities of the well-known gamblers, with accounts of how they fared against the bookmakers. These were the guys who gambled enormous sums of money without the benefit of easily accessible data and past performances. However, they held a significant edge against the betting public because they were dedicated full-time players.

Racing Maxims And Methods Of Pittsburgh Philosophy

Men like Pittsburg Phil, and other big-time players during the era, brought an air of intellectualism into the betting ring. They created some of the handicapping tools — like race charts, running lines, and speed figures — that we take for granted today.

This year I am posting the book that made the legend — in its entirety (well almost, see below).

In 1908, Racing Maxims and Methods of Pittsburg Phil was published, three years after the death of the famed horseplayer. Many of the theories laid out in the book might not seem ground-breaking to the modern reader but, keep in mind, most of the angles it contained had never been distributed to the public before and were unknown to most race goers at the time. The first edition of Maxims was self-published by the editor, Edward Cole, in conjunction with the estate of George E. Smith (aka Pittsburg Phil).

How did Maxims and Methods make it to print? The most context that can be discerned about its publication is found in the first few pages of the 1908 edition. Those pages provide the background and explain how Edward Cole, a New York newspaper writer, came to be its editor and publisher.

The text of the dedication page is as follows:

Dedicated to Mr. Walter Keys, a loyal and valued friend of Mr. George E. Smith (‘Pittsburg Phil’) during many years of active business association and comradeship

Following that was a reprint of a letter (pictured) from Walter Keys to the Edward Cole. Here is a transcription:

Dear Sir.

To my certain knowledge you were the only writer to whom George E. Smith (Pittsburg Phil) confided the story of his methods at the tracks. It was Mr. Smith’s intention that Mr. Cole should publish in book form the matter, that is contained in this volume. Unfortunately, the well known turfman died before the book could be ready. However, he had contributed to Mr. Cole the information which is contained within and I emphasize the statement that there is no other writer in the world to whom Mr. Smith gave this knowledge. The idea that Pittsburg Phil was a lucky plunger will be abandoned after a perusal of this work. It is a complete and accurate record of the methods of one of the country’s shrewdest business men who speculated in races not as a matter of sentiment but because racing was as much a field of investment to him as a Wall Street to the broker.

Truly Yours, Walter Keys

Without further ado, for your reading pleasure, here is the preface and eleven of the thirteen chapters from Racing Maxims and Methods of Pittsburg Phil:

Preface
Chapter 1 — What One Must Know to Play the Horses
Chapter 2 — One Days Work at the Track
Chapter 3 — The Reason for Speculation
Chapter 4 — Handicapping
Chapter 5 — Handicapping by Time
Chapter 6 — Class and Weight
Chapter 7 — Treatment of Horses
Chapter 8 — William Cowan on ‘Pittsburg Phil’
Chapter 9 — ‘Pittsburg Phil’ gave ‘Tod’ Sloan the start by which the Jockey Afterward Became Famous in the Turf World
Chapter 10 — Anecdotes of interest Concerning Some Men of Fame who Wagered Huge Sums on the English Turf (not posted)
Chapter 11 — Drugs and Their Effect Upon Horses
Chapter 12 — Explanation of the Time and Weight Percentage Table (not posted)
Chapter 13 — Maxims of ‘Pittsburg Phil’

You will notice that chapters ten and twelve are not included — they had nothing to do with Pittsburg Phil. The second to the last chapter on drugs does not appear to be from interviews with Phil either but it was interesting enough to include here.

Racing Maxims was published in 1908, putting it in the public domain, and free of copyright restrictions.

SOURCES, NOTES, AND OBSERVATIONS

The page images were taken from the 1908 edition that resides in the Keeneland Library. The photograph of Pittsburg Phil is from the Illustrated Sporting News — it is one of the few images showing the gambler (where he appears to be) at the track.

I am doing a series called “Ten Things you Should Know…” for Hello Race Fans that will feature some of the big races on the racing calendar. This week’s edition is about the Met Mile.

Past articles from Colin’s Ghost about Pittsburg Phil include: The Obituary of…, His Final Resting Place…, and What Killed Him…

THANKS FOR READING AND GOOD LUCK!