Taking Chances: Kayla's Chance

Whim didn’t give up easily, but Centerfold managed to beat him as we raced a little over a mile. I didn’t know whether it was a good thing or a bad that he’d won especially when I saw the look on Al Rosery’s face as we were coming off the track.
I dismounted and turned Centerfold over to Jaime. My father was getting off a phone call as Bo dismounted and another groom led Whim away. “Good job guys,” he said. “Kay I need to talk to you about a race tomorrow.”
“Which one?” I asked.
“The third race. Lonnie was supposed to rude but his flight got canceled.
“Wait, Dingo’s race?” I asked, referring to the three-year-old with the slowly worsening times.
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t think you were running him still.”
“Hopefully he’ll take after Centerfold and perk up around other horses.”
“If you say so.”

That night I studied the field for the third race at Saratoga; a Grade 3 stakes. Stray Cat was the hands down favorite and I noticed something that made me uneasy: Rosery Acers owned the second favorite: Right on Time. The colt was putting in good workouts at Saratoga. I racked my memory and remembered the bay colt that moved like a bullet along the inside rail. From what I remembered, the colt liked to take the inside rail and shoot up it like a bullet out of a gun. He ran single mindedly, never even trying to challenge his rider. One article I found called him a well-oiled machine. The other thing that turned my stomach a little was his jockey: Felipe Andrez.
I sighed and shut the laptop down. Other than Stray Cat and Right on Time, there wasn’t much competition.
Then a thought occurred to me: Right on Time had shown up at Saratoga a few weeks ago, right before Dingo’s times had started going to hell. Before that, he’d been the favorite in this race. Maybe I was just looking for connections and being paranoid. Or maybe there really was something going on.

Dingo was a handful in the saddling paddock. He pranced at the end of his lead and tossed his head. He tried lunging away from his groom and go after another colt. He’d gotten himself lathered up so that his bay coat looked black. My father was frowning at him. “I don’t understand what’s wrong with him.”
“Some horses just get too stressed,” came a voice from behind us.
“Thanks Felipe,” I muttered.
“Heard you’re putting a greenhorn on that loco horse,” Felipe said to my father. “Hope her life insurance is paid up.”
“I hope yours is,” I muttered.
Jose, Dingo’s groom, led the colt over. My father tried to give me a leg up, but he didn’t want to stand still.
“Easy boy,” my father said. He grabbed one of the colt’s reins, Jose grabbed the other, and he managed to push me up. With my weight, Dingo lost it. He shook his head and when that didn’t shake the two men holding him, he struck out with his front hooves. I heard Jose cry out and the next thing I knew, mane was coming up to meet me.
Unprepared for the rear, Dingo’s crest slammed into the front of my helmet and I heard a crack and felt warmth gushing out of my nose. Pain exploded in my nose and found myself sliding down the colt’s back. I tried grabbing mane but it was too late. I slid off his back and hit the ground, hard. For the first few seconds, I couldn’t get my breath. My first thought when my lungs started working again was: move!
Instinctively, I rolled out of they way and felt the wind whistle past my ear where Dingo kicked out. I curled into a tight ball. I heard a scream and looked up to see that Dingo had turned on me. I knew that if he decided to go after me, I didn’t’ have a chance in hell of getting away.
My father reached over to try to grab the colt and his attention was momentarily distracted, trying to keep away from my father. I took the chance and scrambled to my feet. The colt saw me get up and returned his attention to me. He was foaming at the mouth and his eyes were glazed over. That registered right before he lunched at me.
I jumped back, but Dingo still grabbed the front of my silks and pulled me forward. I grabbed for his bridle but he evaded me and shook his head, pulling me off my feet and tossing me from side-to-side.
Then, suddenly, Mik had one side of the colt’s bridle, Bo had the other. I took the chance and slithered out of the shirt, hearing buttons pop and fabric rip and not giving a damn. When I was free, I fell back on my ass again.
My father, Mik, and a track steward had the colt under control again. Bo rushed over to me and shed his plaid shirt, leaving him in an undershirt.
“You okay?” he asked worriedly.
“I think so,” I replied, taking the shirt and buttoning it over my bra.
“Your nose is bleeding.”
Until then I’d forgotten that the colt had smacked me in the face. I crossed my eyes but still couldn’t see much. What I could see was that my helmet visor was hanging.
“Damn horse broke my helmet,” I muttered.
“Maybe that’ll teach you a lesson,” I heard Felipe say. “Rookies don’t belong on loco horses.”

“Something was wrong.”
Mik glanced at me from the driver’s seat. “Thank you Captain Obvious.”
“You’re welcome Lieutenant Sarcasm.” I was holding ice and a tack cleaning rag to y nose. It had stopped bleeding but it hurt like hell and I was developing bruises under my eyes. I’d broke my nose once before and I was pretty sure I’d done it again. “I just hope I don’t have a crooked nose when this is over,” I muttered.
“I still don’t understand what set him off,” Bo said from the back seat.
“Yeah,” Mik said. “He was one of the calmest horses in the barn a month ago.”
“What if it had something to do with the fact that we were running against Rosery Acers?”
“What do you mean?” Bo asked.
“Kayla…” Mik warned.
“Rosery Acers doesn’t want to loose. We were going up against one of their horses that’s head for a Breeder’s Cup race. If he lost a Grade Three race, the committee may not want to give him the spot.”
“What about Stray Cat?” Mik questioned.
“Was he even in the saddling paddock?” I asked.
“No,” Bo said slowly, as if it had just dawned on him. “Stray Cat pulled out this morning because he got out of his stall last night and was acting off this morning.”
I looked pointedly at Mik. “Coincidence?” I asked.
“Okay so maybe something weird’s going on-”
“Something weird? Mik one of your calmest horses just tried to kill me and dislocated Jose’s shoulder.”
“What could Al Rosery have to do with that?”
“Stimulants,” Bo said.
I looked back at him. “What?”
“Stimulant drugs. They aren’t that hard to get. They can make a horse more awake and if Dingo had a bad reaction to it…”
“But how is it administered?” Mik asked.
“Either by injection or in the food,” Bo responded.
“How do you know so much about drugs in the first place?” Mik asked suspiciously.
“When you work at a small-time barn that wants to get to the top and not have to work for it, you learn how to win with a few shortcuts.”
“Don’t let Rich hear you say that,” Mik warned.
“Hey I never took part in any of it. And don’t think I didn’t have any offers. A trainer offered me ten grand to plant steroids in my barn’s tack room.”
“Did you do it?” Mik asked.
“Hell no. That’s not how my mother raised me. She heard about it and threatened to whip my ass if I even thought about taking it.”
“Wait a minuet. What if he paid a groom to do it?” I asked suddenly.
There was silence for a moment. Mik was frowning deeply. A glance in the rear view showed Bo was doing the same.
“Most of the grooms have been working for us for years,” Mik said slowly. “Bo’s the newest hire.”
“It sure as hell wasn’t me,” Bo said. “It probably wasn’t Jose either. He knew he would have to deal with him in the saddling paddock.”
“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves,” Mik said. “We don’t eve know if drugs caused Dingo to act up. Maybe something’s wrong with his back or his mouth-”
He was cut off when his cell phone rang. The readout said “Rich”. I picked it up so Mik wouldn’t have to pull over. “Hello?”
“Kayla?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’s Mik?”
“Driving?”
“Well…tell him to drop you off at the hospital and come back here. Your mother’s waiting for you in the emergency room.”
“What’s happened Dad?” I asked, knowing something had by his tone.
“It’s nothing you need to worry about. Just get x-rays on that nose and backside of yours.”
“If it concerns Dingo it is something I have to worry about.”
He hesitated, and then expelled his breath into the phone. “They ran a drug test…Dingo tested positive.”