Photo Finish

by Bonnie Bryant

  By this time they had reached the Maskee Farms barn. “Where to next?” Carole asked, trying to put both Kent Calhoun and Kelly Kennemere out of her mind.

  “Next, I think, is dinner,” Judy replied. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. Let’s find Max and see if he wants to join us for dinner and a mini-tour of Baltimore. As long as we’re here, we might as well see the sights.” She grinned. “I hope you all like seafood.”

  All three girls nodded. But Carole wasn’t really thinking about dinner—she was thinking about everything she’d seen and heard that afternoon. Her last experience at the racetrack had taught her that some of the people there seemed to think more about the money that was at stake than about the horses themselves.

  But now Carole was learning that there were all kinds of traditions and trivia that went along with racing. That meant it really was much more than just a business—didn’t it?

  As she followed her friends toward the parking lot, Carole decided she’d definitely be keeping her eyes and ears open the next day. She had a feeling she had a lot to learn.

  “EVEN AFTER ALL that walking, I’m still so full I never want to eat again,” Stevie moaned later that night.

  The three girls were lying on the two large, comfortable beds in the second bedroom of Judy’s spacious hotel suite. Judy had already said good night and gone to bed, but The Saddle Club was too excited by the day’s events to go to sleep yet. They had decided to hold a Saddle Club meeting instead. Lisa was reloading her camera and getting her equipment ready for the next day while the girls talked.

  “I know what you mean,” Carole said. “I knew eating that last crab was a mistake, but it tasted so good, I couldn’t resist.”

  Judy and Max had taken them to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a modern complex of shops and restaurants by the water. The girls had been disappointed that they’d arrived too late to visit the famous aquarium there, but they had found plenty of other things to do, from shopping to people-watching to posing for dozens of Lisa’s pictures. They had bought souvenirs for their families and stuffed themselves with fresh seafood until they could hardly move. And even after their huge meal, Stevie had insisted on ice cream for dessert—pistachio with coconut topping and strawberry sauce. Finally Judy had suggested heading back to the hotel to get some sleep.

  “I can hardly wait for tomorrow,” Stevie said.

  “Me too,” Lisa said, stifling a yawn. “And it’s going to be here soon enough—it’s almost midnight. What time did Judy say we’d be getting up?”

  “I’m not sure,” Carole said. “I just told her to wake us up in time to go over with her in the morning when she checks the horses before their workouts. She said it would be early.”

  FOUR HOURS LATER Lisa felt a hand shaking her shoulder. She groaned and rolled over without opening her eyes.

  The hand didn’t go away. “Come on, Lisa,” said a loud, cheerful voice. “Rise and shine!”

  Lisa slowly opened one eye a crack and peered up into Judy’s smiling face. “What time is it?” she croaked.

  “It’s five minutes to four,” Judy replied.

  “Five to what?” Lisa said in disbelief. “Did you say five to four? As in four o’clock in the morning?”

  “You got it,” Judy said, reaching over to poke Carole, who was snoring softly in the other half of the bed. “We’re running a little late, so you’d better hurry.”

  “Leave me alone, Dad,” Carole mumbled sleepily. “It’s Saturday.”

  Lisa, by now at least half awake, nudged Carole with her elbow. “Hey, wake up,” she said. “We have to get over to the racetrack.”

  “The racetrack!” Carole said, suddenly wide awake. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Let’s go!” She glanced down at her watch and gasped. “Is it really four A.M.?”

  Judy was heading for the door. “I’ve got to finish drying my hair. I’ll leave it to you two to get Stevie up.”

  Within forty minutes all three girls were dressed, though still yawning and rubbing their eyes. Judy led them out of the room and downstairs to the parking lot.

  “I still can’t believe I’m awake at this hour,” Lisa groaned as she climbed into the backseat of Judy’s car, clutching her camera.

  Stevie slumped down in a corner of the front seat and fought to keep her eyes open. “I know what you mean,” she mumbled. “And I thought school started too early!”

  A few minutes later they were at the track, heading for the Maskee Farms stables. Despite the early hour, the stable area was bustling with activity. The Saddle Club watched as Eddie saddled Monkeyshines with a little help from Blackie, who seemed determined to chew on the ends of the horse’s reins. Then Mr. McLeod and his trainer led the colt out to the track for his final prerace workout.

  “Come on,” Eddie said, noticing the girls watching. “You want to see him work, don’t you?”

  “You bet,” Stevie said.

  Eddie led The Saddle Club to a spot along the outside rail. “You’ll have a pretty good view from here,” he said. He pointed to a group of three horses galloping around the far turn. “As soon as that bunch is finished, Monk will have his turn. Mr. McLeod wants him to work alone today.”

  “What’s he going to be doing, exactly?” Lisa asked.

  “Well, since it’s race day, this is really more of a warmup than a real workout,” Eddie explained. “Monk will just trot for a half-mile or so to loosen up, and then gallop for another half-mile. But he won’t be going at his full racing speed. He’s got to save that for this afternoon.”

  Stevie noticed that there were a lot of other people standing at the rail farther down the track, watching as the horses exercised. “Who are they?” she asked Eddie.

  “Some of them are reporters, some are the owners or trainers of other horses,” he said. “They like to time the horses’ workouts so they can see what their horses might be up against.”

  Carole looked more carefully. “Hey, there’s Deborah,” she said. Just then Deborah noticed the girls and gave them a quick wave before returning her attention to the horses on the track.

  “She looks pretty busy,” Lisa commented. She noticed that Kent Calhoun was also among the group, and wrinkled her nose, remembering his rudeness the day before.

  A moment later she forgot all about Kent as the group of horses on the track finished their workout and left. It was Monkeyshines’s turn. The jockey had arrived and mounted, and he was steering the eager colt onto the track. Lisa got her camera ready. She wanted to get plenty of pictures now in case she couldn’t get close enough during the race.

  If the girls had thought Monkeyshines was beautiful in his stall, they were even more impressed by seeing him in motion. Every move he made was smooth and controlled. Taut muscles rippled beneath his sleek coat as he trotted, then moved easily into a gallop.

  “Wow,” Carole said admiringly as Monkeyshines finished his workout and Eddie led the colt back toward the barn. “He’s so perfect. He really is going to be hard to beat today, isn’t he?”

  “Hey, look,” Stevie said. “Here comes his rival.”

  The others turned to see Garamond stepping calmly onto the track, accompanied by two other Thoroughbreds.

  “Let’s stay and watch him,” Carole suggested.

  “Good idea,” Stevie agreed. “It couldn’t hurt to see the competition in action.”

  The girls continued to lean on the rail as the big colt and his two companions headed down the track at a walk. When they were halfway around, the riders turned the horses and began to trot, then canter. Finally, the three racers moved into a gallop.

  Carole held her breath as the horses raced. Monkeyshines had seemed fast when running alone, but Garamond was equally impressive running in company. He quickly outdistanced his two rivals and swept over the finish line well in the lead. When his rider pulled him up, Carole could see that the big colt was hardly winded, and she guessed that he hadn’t been running at his full speed. She couldn’t hear what Garamo
nd’s trainer said to the jockey as he clipped a lead rope onto the colt’s bridle, but he was smiling.

  “He’s going to be hard to beat too,” she said.

  Her friends nodded.

  “But Monk can do it,” Stevie said confidently. “After all, with The Saddle Club on his side, how can he lose?”

  Carole and Lisa couldn’t argue with that. They turned around and noticed Mr. McLeod and his trainer approaching the track, leading the gelding Chestnut Cal and another horse. The girls waved to them, then strolled off through the stable area, watching the hustle and bustle that was still going on all around them. When they reached the Maskee Farms stable, though, it was quiet.

  “I guess the whole gang is at the track, watching the other horses,” Carole commented.

  It seemed to be true—there were no people in sight. In fact, the first creature the girls encountered, just outside the entrance, was Blackie the goat. He wandered over to them, chewing busily on a rag he’d obviously stolen from someone’s grooming bucket.

  “Oh, Blackie!” Lisa cried. “I promised I’d take your picture, didn’t I?” She removed the lens cap from her camera and started to focus.

  Carole and Stevie let out loud mock sighs. “Well, there goes the rest of the morning,” Stevie commented jokingly.

  “Very funny,” Lisa said. “Just hold on a second. I’ve almost got him in focus.” She moved forward a few steps, stumbling over a small rock that had somehow made its way onto the otherwise clean path.

  Carole hurried forward and picked up the rock, tossing it into a nearby trash bin. “I wouldn’t want that to get stuck in someone’s hoof,” she said.

  “Like mine?” Lisa teased.

  “Oh, come on,” Stevie teased back. “If you’re going to be an ace photographer, you’re going to have to deal with bigger hardships than that little stone.”

  “True,” Carole agreed, with a grin. “Like getting your subjects in focus before they fall asleep.”

  Carole and Stevie continued to trade jokes about Lisa’s photography habit for a few moments while Lisa tried hard to ignore them and concentrate on getting the fast-moving little goat into focus.

  “There!” she cried at last with satisfaction. “That was it! The perfect shot!”

  “Finally,” Stevie said. “Now can we go inside and say hello to Monk?”

  The Saddle Club hurried through the open doorway and made their way toward Monkeyshines’s stall at the end of the row. Halfway there, they noticed Hold Fast peering out at them over the half-door of his stall.

  “Oh, hi there, Stretch!” Carole said, remembering the stallion’s stable name. She paused to watch him for a few minutes, and her friends stopped with her. Blackie wandered away.

  “He looks ready to race too, doesn’t he?” Stevie commented. “Don’t worry, Stretch, we won’t forget about you just because you’re not in the Preakness. We’ll still cheer you on.”

  The Saddle Club turned and started toward Monkeyshines’s stall again. But before they’d taken more than a few steps, they saw Blackie trotting toward them from the end of the row.

  “Look, he found something else to chew on,” Lisa commented. “It looks like hay. He must have snitched some from Monk.”

  Carole watched the goat for a moment. “It doesn’t look like he’s really eating it though, does it?” she said. “Maybe that rag filled him up.”

  Blackie shook his head, seeming annoyed. He spat out the mouthful of hay. Then he picked it up again and worried it with his teeth. After a few seconds he spat it out again.

  “What’s this? Have pigs learned to fly?” said Eddie Hernandez’s voice from behind the girls. “Did I really just see that bottomless pit spit out some food?”

  Carole turned and saw that Eddie had an armload of hay and a couple of halters slung over one shoulder. His eyes were riveted to Blackie. “I guess he’s full,” she said with a shrug.

  “Full?” Eddie shook his head. “I doubt it. We’d better ask your pal Judy Barker to take a look at him when she gets back. If Blackie has stopped eating, there’s got to be something seriously wrong with him. Maybe I’ll take a look at him myself when I have a half a second to do it.” With that, Eddie disappeared into a nearby stall.

  Carole was pretty sure the groom was joking, but just in case, she hurried forward and knelt down in front of the goat. “Are you feeling all right, Blackie?” she asked, scratching his head between the hard little horns. On a hunch, she leaned over and picked up the slightly soggy mouthful of hay the goat had dropped. She examined it for a second, then jumped to her feet. “Hey, you guys! Look at this,” she exclaimed. “This hay is moldy through and through!”

  Stevie and Lisa hurried over to see for themselves. “You’re right,” Stevie said with a low whistle. “No wonder Blackie didn’t want to eat this. It would have made him as sick as—”

  “Monkeyshines!” Carole interrupted her. She rushed off down the aisle. “If Blackie stole it from Monk’s stall, there might be more. We have to get it before he does—if we’re not already too late!”

  “OH, GOSH, SHE’S right,” Lisa said, hurrying after Carole. Stevie was close behind her. All three of them knew that just a few bites of the moldy hay could make Monkeyshines much too sick to race that day.

  Eddie reemerged from the other stall in time to see them racing down the aisle. “Whoa there, what’s going on?” he shouted, hurrying after them.

  Carole didn’t pause to answer. Calling a greeting to Monkeyshines so he wouldn’t be startled by her abrupt arrival, she quickly unlatched the webbing that was stretched across the open doorway and let herself in. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the colt was facing away from his metal food manger. He greeted her with a nicker, and she reached out to pat him with her left hand, while her right hand searched the manger for more hay.

  “Got it,” she said a moment later, emerging from the stall and latching the rope carefully behind her. She was clutching a handful of moldy hay.

  Eddie reached them at the same moment. “All right, what’s going on here?” he demanded, sounding a little angry. “Don’t you know you shouldn’t go barging into a racehorse’s stall like that, no matter how good-natured he is?”

  “Sorry,” Carole said. “I do know. But this was an emergency.” She held out her hand so the groom could see the hay. “I had to stop him from eating this.”

  Eddie took the hay from her and examined it. The angry lines in his face relaxed, and he looked puzzled. “Moldy hay. How did you know this was in there?”

  “That’s what Blackie had that he wasn’t eating,” Stevie explained. “Carole saw that it was moldy, and she figured it must have come from Monk’s stall. She didn’t want him to eat it and get sick.”

  Eddie’s eyes widened. He looked down in time to see Blackie scoot under the rope and into Monkeyshines’s stall. “Boy, it’s a good thing that goat is such a pig!” he exclaimed. “That was good thinking on your part, Carole—I can’t believe I didn’t think to stop and check on Blackie myself. I should know better than to just let that kind of strange behavior go, no matter how busy I am.”

  He handed the moldy hay back to Carole and quickly stepped inside several of the other stalls nearby, checking the hay in each. “Nothing in any of these. Looks like Monk was the only unlucky one. It’s a good thing you girls caught it in time. Otherwise Monk would have ended up out of the race with a bad case of colic.” He shook each of the girls’ hands in turn. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome,” said Carole. “Although Blackie probably deserves most of the credit. How do you think that moldy hay got in there anyway?”

  Eddie shrugged. “Who knows? I fed the horses myself this morning and I know the hay was fine then. I also know that Monk polished off every bite of his breakfast—the trainer wouldn’t let him run today if he hadn’t. Someone must have given him some more hay later and not checked it carefully enough.”

  “That seems kind of strange …,” Lisa began to say slowl
y.

  “Hey, stranger things have happened,” Eddie said with another shrug. “It was a close call, but luckily it seems to have turned out okay. I’ll ask Judy to give Monk a close look when she shows up, but other than that, all we can do now is forget about it.”

  “But—” Carole objected.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Eddie said. “It was probably an accident.” He hurried off down the aisle.

  Carole, Stevie, and Lisa traded glances. They were silent for a moment.

  “Do you think it was an accident?” Carole asked at last.

  “No way,” Stevie said. “How could moldy hay just accidentally end up in the feed bin of one horse—one horse who happens to be running in the Preakness that very day?”

  “It does seem kind of suspicious,” Carole agreed, staring down at the hay in her hand. “This isn’t just a little moldy—it’s moldy through and through. It would have been hard for someone to miss it.” She shuddered as she thought about Monkeyshines’s close call. If he’d eaten the hay and gotten colic, he would have been very sick—he might even have died. From all her experience of working with horses, Carole had learned that it was always better to be too cautious than not cautious enough. That meant always checking hay and other feed for spoilage. And right now that also meant wondering if there might be some other explanation for the moldy hay than “accident.”

  Lisa looked thoughtful. “I don’t know, you guys,” she said. “I agree that it’s strange, but it must be an accident. What other explanation is there?”

  “I’ll tell you: Someone was trying to poison Monkeyshines,” Stevie said darkly. “Someone knew that his owner and trainer and most of the other people from the stable were out with the other horses. Eddie was over getting hay, so he was out of the way. It was a perfect opportunity to knock Monk out of the race.”

  Carole stared at her friend. “But why?” she asked. “Why would someone do that?” She reached out and stroked Monkeyshines’s nose. “What a horrible thing to try to do!”