Flaxmead

by Brian Cain

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  Wilson and Bartholomew were spending a lot of time at Shangri La. Heading into the cooler autumn weather with pleasant sunny days, globetrotting was reduced to hit and run when necessary. Weekends with the children had become fun, Anna and Dylan called them Pop one and Pop two. They began to pick up speed, convalescing was just what the doctor ordered, making the most of some enjoyable free time now and then. An unused room in the office complex was equipped for them to operate from, but they found they spent less and less time in it. A television monitor was put in the stable complex kitchen and they spent more and more time there learning what it was like to be a strapper for Flaxmead from Jessica. The battle for the Melbourne Cup was on and they didn't want to miss it.

  Two recliner arm chairs were sourced and placed in the stable kitchen they began to spend so much time there. The senior pair often watched sky racing checking out not only their own horses form, but the oppositions as well. They often scanned thorough the channels to the news, the state government had changed and they listened intrepidly for the progress on state mining law. New faces everywhere but the buses and trains still ran late, if at all and amendments to state mining legislation were slow. The new state premier said as soon as the new party members could find their offices, something would happen, a cup of tea perhaps.

  The exciting and busy life came with its drawbacks, insomnia from globe trotting often left them drained with sleep deprivation. They stumbled upon what they thought was a dramatisation of question time in Australian Parliament Lower House, Canberra. They were shocked to find that it was not a dramatisation at all and the scenes were in fact direct from Canberra. Not only that, but no one actually answered a question that was asked with party members appearing to know more about the opposition's policies than their own. Wilson and Bartholomew argued about how long the arguing leaders of the country would last in a corporate board room, their opinions varied from five to ten minutes. Bartholomew thought ten, he said they got the answers wrong but would give them ten minutes based on their reasoning. They realised it would be impossible to get actors that looked just like the PM and leader of the opposition whom they were familiar with having met them, it had to be real. They watched in disgust at behaviour that would be unacceptable in a kindergarten. After question time, the lower house tackled bill debate. After a while they dropped off to a deep sleep just as the honourable member was about to make a trusting statement regarding the plight of homeless gay whales. Australian scientists had found these particular whale's family tree had been adversely affected in the Second World War. They had stumbled on the fact German U boats in the Denmark Straights present during the sinking of the British battleship HMS Hood whilst engaging the German battleship Bismarck heading out into the North Atlantic to attack supply convoys may have caused the problem. Watching the traumatic scene and following German U boats in the area thinking they were whales on heat had affected their ability to tell male from female. A bill was tabled detailing the research and suggesting that in the case of these whales, same sex marriage should be permissible but not compulsory. A lobby group insisted it should be compulsory based on the terrible experience the whales had suffered being no fault of theirs. They sent a letter to the lower house thanking the party member for exposing the facts under parliamentary privilege; it was tabled with the bill, fantastic.

  After a short deep and rewarding sleep they were suddenly awoken by light music and singing. They were about to turn it off but left in on studying the behaviour teachings embedded in the television show. They were impressed with the behaviour, concept and presentation, magnificent building blocks for young people undergoing the learning process. In stark contrast to question time in the lower house, the show on ABC, Play School, became a favourite for the pair should they require being mustered from deep slumber after Canberra cam. Wilson and Bartholomew agreed that the children's show, after investigation by the pair found to be an ABC long running icon, aired mid afternoon directly after parliamentary coverage should be shown in parliament on massive screens within the house. This would allow the members of the house to brush up on basic etiquette, manners and communication skills, out the window and somehow lost since they viewed the show as infants. This was hard to fathom how such basic skills should somehow just fly out the window as the upper and lower chambers in Canberra didn't have any windows.

  In the course of tracking rival horse form a trend had been noted by the pair. It was the wettest year since records had been kept in Australia and some race meetings had been run in very wet conditions and heavy going. The Scottish star Celtic Storm had been attending meetings along the entire east coast of Australia, running every week. A considerable number of races were being run in some of the wettest and heaviest going ever experienced in the country. Tracks were running meetings in conditions that in past years would see them cancelled as the exceptionally wet weather persisted. In these conditions the Scottish import revelled and delivered convincing wins. As the horse became more acclimatised the bay mare's general performance improved.

  Winston Blake, Graham Harper and Bob Field's had regular meetings to plan race logistics; some included Clifford Barking to discuss wine production and marketing. As the push into interstate race meetings was upon them the first Nebbiolo grapes arrived from Queensland, they were split up between Shangri La and Loudbark. For the first time in the history of the wineries the crushing facilities ran in August. Two different maturing and blending plans were being trialled using pooled ideas of both wineries winemakers.

  The JJ Liston Stakes, Caulfield racecourse was a long way away, aware of people like the assassin; Winston had been hatching a plan with Graham and Bob to avoid placing Flaxmead in harms way. The elaborate horse float now became the benchmark of the plan, one reason this particular float had not sold from when Winston first viewed it to when he purchased it some time later was its extravagance. Creighton built a float fit to travel to the moon, he generally only did this by prior request as the market for such floats was rare. Most race horses were kept by conglomerate trainers with extensive local and interstate facilities. A majority of the horses were actually owned by people too busy to care for them with only the possible investment return and prestige connected with the sport in mind. Situations such as two children having a pet capable of decimating the reputation of every horse on the planet, was a one of and required completely different tactical approach. The last thing bob Field's wanted to do was block access to his children's pet from his kids, the first thing he wanted to do was let them see it win the Melbourne Cup. It had been bantered around his home for the last four years by Anna and Dylan. Travelling was generally minimised for race horse owners and with networks available was generally unnecessary. Conglomerate trainers only having to transport horses from one facility to another close to pending major races, using extensive networks they had built up. Theo Delores the Smiling Assassin was one such trainer with extensive facilities in major cities throughout the country, along with Jack Prendergast, Neville Creighton and Geoff Leroy they controlled the industry. But they didn't control the training, movements and power of Flaxmead and Flushing Meadow. They had just been blessed with a further problem, a Scottish import with a trainer so dedicated he slept in the stable with his horse.

  John and Jodi Stanton had become regulars at Flaxmead's race wins, Stanton kept out of the way keeping to himself. Enjoying the never ending string of demands from his vivacious wife, he double checked the right media information was being forwarded to the right people. Separated from her for years he had only recently got her back chasing her and his sons and daughter all the way to Australia from England in retirement from British MI6 service. Ross Hildebrand the trainer of Celtic Storm had been a sergeant in the Royal Scott's Dragoon Guards, looking after the horse mounts in later years for the army his horses were regular's at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, he could not get horses out of his system. His wife passed away and Ross retired from the army and engrossed himself in work
to manage the grief. His only daughter had been killed in London's underground tube train bombings by terrorist sleeper cells. Becoming a trainer for a major Scottish horse stable he worked twenty four hours a day to fight depression and he found Celtic Storm. John Stanton was aware of who Ross Hildebrand was, what he had done and what had happened to him. He considered Ross a member of his creed and watched over him, already having sampled the establishment's tactics.

  Incredible circumstances and a horse had brought together a team, they had become close friends, and it was bringing together the spirit of an entire valley. The entrenched horse racing establishment was about to meet the untouchables.