In the Stretch (1913)

Mr. Almsley, the owner of Dark Stranger, and Stewart Warner, a bookmaker, visit the racetrack as Phil Scovelle, a stable boy, is exercising the horse. They are enthusiastic at Dark Stranger's showing and Scovelle's riding. Warner uses his influence with the Jockey Club to make Scovelle a jockey, for which Scovelle is grateful and promises Warner to do everything he may ask. The boy is made a jockey, and wins with Dark Feather in his first race, against great odds, making horse and jockey famous. Warner soon gets the boy to "pull" races. The Jockey Club, suspicious of Scovelle's riding, warns him. Thoroughly scared, he refuses Warner's demands that he "pull" the day's race and declares that he won't ride "crooked" again. Desperate with losses, Warner threatens, but in vain, and, realizing that large sums will be bet in his pool rooms on Dark Stranger, the favorite, and that he will win these sums if the favorite loses, Warner has a confederate "dope" the horse. An overdose kills the horse, and Scovelle is accused, ruled off the turf, and sent to jail. The boy serves his full term and comes out an outcast. Meanwhile, Warner has coined money in his crooked pool rooms. Jack Milton, the minister's son, becomes one of his victims. Another victim, despondent from betting losses, commits suicide. Mary Stevens, the daughter of the district attorney, and also Jack's fiancée, is saved from a runaway accident by Scovelle. The newspaper criticisms of the crooked pool rooms, and the activities of Jack's father, a leader in the reform movement, causes the district attorney to raid these pool rooms. Personally leading the raid, the district attorney finds Jack among the bettors, and tells Jack if he gambles again he cannot marry his daughter. The net of the district attorney is drawing closer around Warner, who is as yet unknown. Warner hatches a plot to decoy the district attorney to a restaurant to meet a supposed informer. In the meantime, Scovelle has followed the men to a Chinese restaurant and overheard the plot. Hastening to the district attorney's house, he persuades him to heed the warning. The district attorney plants his men inside and outside of the restaurant and keeps the appointment. One of the gangsters gets the district attorney to step outside, this being the cue to shoot; the gangsters start forward only to be overpowered and arrested by the detectives. Warner, waiting in a Chinatown restaurant, is surprised, and in his attempted escape, is fatally shot, and through his confession Scovelle is cleared and reinstated as a jockey. Jack is being hard pressed by a gambler for a debt and is tipped off in a letter to bet on Blue Streak, second choice, being assured that Whirlwind, the favorite, won't win. Determined to cover his losses and square his debts on this sure thing, Jack takes some of his father's money. At the last moment Scovelle is picked to ride Whirlwind. Mary learns of the money stolen from \Jack's father on accidentally discovering the envelope which contained the money along with the gambler's letter to Jack. Mary goes to the track to prevent Jack from betting this money, but he already has it on Blue Streak. Mary borrows money from Mr. Almsley, Whirlwind's owner, to bet on Whirlwind. Whirlwind, with Scovelle riding, wins the big race, and Jack goes broke. Mary comes to his rescue with her winnings and forgives him. Jack restores the money and confesses to his father. Jack's confession squares Moses, the old servant, who had been accused of the theft, and Jack's father, feeling that he had learned his lesson, forgives him. Scovelle promises to be a welcome visitor in at least two homes when he is not riding "favorites" on some track.