The Big One

Chapter 9: Back To Work

I grabbed a DRF as I entered Santa Anita Park on January 1st. The headline read, "Hotshot is back!". I thought to myself, 'Have they always called me hotshot?'.

It was good to be back home, back with the horses, back browsing the conditions book. All the big horses had won during my suspension, Plower in Kentucky, Clubhouse at Los Al, Councilman in New York, and Candy Bird on Turf. The plans for them weren't extremely clear, but we had some ideas.

I went to see them all, and they all seemed very happy that I was back with them, and the same went for me. The barn seemed the same as it did the day I got suspended, but I hadn't seen Jefe at all. I had decided it was time to peruse the stakes schedule and see what races they were all gonna run in.

Councilman had run 3 times in New York, and won every time, and it would be worth the chance to keep my runners seperate, so I might as well send a few with him, and let Jefe handle all of them. The Jerome would be too soon, and he's run every month except one since July, so I would just go in the Withers and then the Wood.

Clubhouse Drive was a different beast, meaning he was the easiest of all to map out a schedule. He would take a break until the San Felipe, and then run in the Santa Anita Derby.

Candy Bird would be the synthetic specialist of the quartet, to keep him on the turf side. It would be the El Camino Real Derby, and the next one would be the Spiral at Turfway for his final prep.

Finally, the cinderella story, Plower. The plans were unclear what would happen, but ideally, he would have a crazy one. I ultimately decided on 4 races, the Robert Lewis, the Tampa Bay Derby, the Sunland Derby, and finally the Arkansas Derby.

I finished up and walked out of my office, when one of my top grooms, Tom, said, "How's it feel to be back boss?"

"Great, Tom. Have you seen Jefe anywhere?" I responded, worried.

"You didn't hear boss? Jefe is dead."