Anyone familiar with horse racing collectibles?

[rholmes]

I have a group of 3 horse racing betting tickets along with the two paper items pictured below. All of these items were found together and are related to each other. I know almost zero about horse racing and am wondering if anyone here can help fill in any info.

From research I know that the tickets are from Laurel Park in Maryland, October 31, 1917. This was the final day of the annual month-long races that I believe were held in conjunction with the Maryland State Fair. The names of the horses typed on the sheet of paper and written on the scrap correspond exactly to the races on October 31.

Questions: Is there anything to decipher from any of the numbers on the tickets? Do the instructions and numbers typed on the sheet have anything to do with the races, picking of horses etc, or are these notations for something unrelated?

I also figured out that the facsimile signature on the tickets is that of Matt Winn. He was manager of Laurel Park in 1917, and soon after became manager (then president) of Churchill Downs. He seems to be a fairly important in the world of horse racing, bringing the Kentucky Derby to fame, etc.

Thanks for any help.

[Leon]

Leland's has a ton of horse racing memorabilia at auction right now. You might ask them after their auction ends.

[MooseDog]

Very cool items.

I think the four digit number represents some kind of serial number for the ticket. Not completely sure but I think all wagers were $2 back then and "straight" represented a win bet. The number on the far right was likely the horse number in that race.

So each ticket was likely a $2 win bet on the #2 horse in each of the races.

The typewritten page looks like someone's handicapping from the Morning Telegraph, which was the East Coast version of the Daily Racing Form. The series of numbers were probably the picks from the various handicappers printed in the Telegraph.

I don't collect much any more but I can point you to a couple of resources that might be of help:

The Keeneland Library

National Museum of Racing

[rholmes]

Thanks for the info!