Or being an “also ran”;

My only hope was to sneak and dope

The horse of the other man.

I pulled a deal in Guayaquil,

In an Inca silver mine;

And before they found ’twas salted ground,

I was safe in the Argentine.

Where I made short weight on the River Platte;

I was running a freighter there.

And I cracked a crib on a rich estate,