They sat on the edges of their chairs, teetering, twisting. Their clothes and manners showed that few of them were at ease amid the splendors of Manhattan's swank Ritz-Carlton Hotel. But it was less their surroundings than the fateful decision that each & every one of them was about to make that caused them to squirm nervously.
Out of a huge drum in Dublin their numbers had been drawn for horses entered in the Cambridgeshire Stakes at Newmarket, England, a race which decides one of the three great annual lotteries of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes committee. That meant a sure $2,000 return on each one's $2.50 investment. It also meant a chance to win $150,000, $75,000 or $50,000 for tickets on the horses which took first, second or third places. But there were 37 horses entered in the race. And at the Ritz-Carlton last week sat a big, bland, dapper, young Briton ready to pay from $3.500 to $16,800 cash for tickets on a large number of likely winners.
He was Sidney Freeman Jr., sole U. S. representative of "Duggie." A syndicate and not a person, "Duggie" is London's Douglas Stuart Ltd. ("Duggie Never Owes"), world's biggest firm of racetrack bookmakers. For years this British syndicate has been sending Sidney Freeman Sr., one of the directors, to the U. S. to buy up Sweepstakes tickets from persons who prefer a small sure thing to a large chance. Last summer Sidney Freeman Jr. went along, watched his father trade $100,000 cash for Epsom Derby lottery tickets which won some $225,000 (TIME, June 18). After that lesson Sidney Sr. decided that Sidney Jr. was ready to try his luck alone.
One day last week Mr. Freeman installed himself at the Ritz-Carlton with a telephone and a great stack of U. S. currency at his elbow. Cables streamed in from London with instructions, betting odds. One after another ticket-holders shambled into his office, nervous, undecided, wanting to haggle. Mr. Freeman remained cool, crisp, firm as ever his father had been. "Take it or leave it. That's the price now and we may not be buying tickets on that horse later."
By 1 o'clock in the morning Sidney Freeman had traded without a break for 24 hours, had paid out some $300,000 for 73 tickets and upset the pound-dollar exchange rate for the day.
Race results reached the U. S. about 10 a. m. that day. Wychwood Abbot, a horse, had come from behind to beat Commander III, also a horse, by a half length. Highlander was third. For the U. S. that meant the biggest slice of sweepstakes prizes it had ever won. Total receipts of the lottery had been about $16,000,000, of which an estimated $3,750,000 had gone from the U. S. Back now to the U. S. in prizes would come some $2,600,000, of which the U. S. Government expects to collect about $400,000 in income taxes. Three U. S. residents held tickets on the winning horse; eight on the second; four on the third. All three top winners lived in New York City.