Acid and Bribery

By Jeanne Ann Off

Tomar El Oro, the stakes winning three-year-old American Quarter Horse stallion favored to win the race, unexpectedly lost miserably. Having overheard a conversation that suggested bribery, Kelsey Kelley wondered if her best friend's father, Eustacio Rios, was bribed to lose.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inks and Bindings, LLC
• Release date: Apr 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798886150193

Jeanne Ann Off

Jeanne Ann off has a Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado State University and a Bible College degree from Faith Bible Institute. She also took a writing course from the Institute of Children's Literature. She's married to her wonderful husband Don Off, and Jeanne celebrated their 64th anniversary in 2021. Both of them grew up on Western Colorado cattle ranches.

Book preview

Chapter 1: RAIN AND CONSPIRACY

"H i, Kelsey," Cody Smagans pushed his green cap farther down on his graying hair. Mud clung to his pant legs.

Bad storm, huh? Kelsey said, looking up at the maintenance man. Cody repaired buildings, equipment, and grounds on the Derbyrun Downs horse racing facility in eastern Colorado.

Yeah. The track will be muddy for tomorrow’s races.

I need the roof repaired over Tomar’s stall, Kelsey said. Tomar El Oro was an important American Quarter Horse stallion, winner of two graded stakes races.

Can’t do it today, Cody answered.

It might rain again tonight! The forecast said it would, Kelsey said. She swallowed hard. Kelsey wondered how the wet stall would affect Tomar.

You can fix it. Take that ladder. Put this sealer, roof fabric, and a piece of tin in the bucket over there, Cody explained. Take those tin snips and the rivet gun. Just dry the roof, spread sealer with this spatula, and put the fabric on that. Push it down so the sealer oozes through and rivet the tin over the whole thing. Read the instructions on the sealer.

Cody turned away and climbed into the white Mack Truck with the green monster behind it. Everybody called the twelve-stall starting gate the green monster. Kelsey’s boss, Janice Moran, had said Tomar, like lots of horses, thought it was a horse-eating predator the first time he saw it.

As the maintenance man drove away, Kelsey felt appreciated because Cody trusted her. He thought she really could repair the roof. Kelsey smiled and decided to give it a try. Most sixteen-year-old girls don’t repair roofs. Kelsey never had before either.

What could be more important to Cody than a leaky roof? She wondered. It had rained hard. The bedding in Tomar El Oro’s stall was soaked.

Keeping stalls clean and dry was part of Kelsey’s job at Derbyrun Downs racetrack. Kelsey was on the roof, covering the holes, when she heard voices on the other side of the barn.

I think he’ll go for it, said a deep male voice.

Yeah, you’ll just slip him some money under the table, and he’ll throw it for us, answered a higher-pitched female voice.

Kelsey strained to hear more, but the voices faded. She couldn’t place them, and she could hardly believe what she had heard. It sounded as if someone was trying to fix a race. By the time she scrambled over the peak of the roof and carefully moved down to peek over the far edge, the conspirators were gone.

Kelsey nervously twisted a curl of light brown hair around her left index finger. Not to Cody though, she thought. I should report what I heard. Maybe I’ll tell the cool security guard at the stable gate, Blaine Carthege. He saw everyone who came back here today. Or should I tell the steward?

Tomar was expected to win tomorrow’s feature Quarter Horse allowance. Could that be the race they were talking about? Eustacio Rios was to ride Tomar. Could her best friend Saira’s (pronounced Shy-ruh) papa be bribed? Kelsey knew Señor Rios needed money for his family and relatives in Mexico. That’s why he’s a jockey in Colorado instead of near his home at Hipodromo de as Americas in Mexico City. He made more money here, she thought. If he were caught taking a bribe, he’d lose his job and be deported. Losing races would not get him rides or keep him high in jockey standings. When Eustacio Rios refused the bribe, as he surely would, that would be the end of it, wouldn’t it? Eustacio Rios could handle trouble. She shrugged and tried to forget what she heard.

As she worked on the roof, Kelsey thought about the early afternoon windblown deluge of rain that made the stall wet, the ground a mess of mud, and the racetrack heavy. Even if the track was muddy instead of good or fast, Tomar should win. Tomar was going to be in post four, the very best place to start any Quarter Horse sprint. More winners have started from post four than any other post.

Loren Kelley, Kelsey’s mom, came before Kelsey finished. I bought a horse tetherball for Tomar El Oro to play with, she said. He needs something to do during boring hours in his stall. It looks as if you read my mind and are ready to install it.

Cool.

Kelsey installed the tetherball before she covered the last hole then climbed down the ladder. Mom petted Nanee, the tawny-colored goat who was eating hay Tomar had dropped from the hay bag hanging just outside his stall door.

Mom, Janice has Nanee because she thinks goats keep horses from getting distemper. Is that true or just racetrack superstition? Kelsey asked.

I don’t know, but I’ve never heard of a horse with distemper. Cats get distemper. Put Tomar on the hot walker, then clean his stall. It’s one awful soaked mess.

Yes, Mom, I know that. Do you think Tomar will like a red ball?

The tack store only had red ones. I don’t think color will matter to a horse.

Are horses color-blind?

Sometime, ask Charlie Hank if horses see colors. He’s the old man we see watching race replays in the cafeteria, her mom replied. I’m going to the cafeteria for ice to prepare the legs of the six horses scheduled to race tomorrow.

Can I help you put the ice boots on? Kelsey asked.

Janice wants me to put them on. You have horses to feed and stalls to clean. Get out six leg wraps with nine ice pockets on the inside. Be sure to pick leg wraps with good Velcro.

Yes, Mom.

Bright flashes of lightning were followed closely by crashes of thunder. Under the roof over the barn aisle outside Tomar’s stall, Kelsey tried to calm her favorite horse. Her roof repair was keeping the downpour out of Tomar’s stall, but nothing kept out the noise of rain hitting the tin roof.

It’ll be alright, Tomar. The storm will stop.

He continued to pace, rear high, kick the air, and then come to Kelsey for reassurance. A sweaty smell came from his wet sorrel hair. He ran circles around the stall, his flaxen mane and tail flowing outward. Clumps of fragrant clean wood shaving bedding were kicked up by fast-moving hooves.

Calm down, boy. Save some energy for your race tomorrow. Winning the 350-yard allowance for three-year-olds will help pay your stake in the derby. When you win the Quarter Horse Derby, Janice will pay Mom and me a big bonus. We need the money.

Kelsey dreamed of the day that the truck and trailer would be paid for so there’d be money for cellular phones, clothes, fingernail polish, and movies.

The cloth sunscreen which formed the outside of the barn aisle allowed Kelsey to see rivulets of water flowing down the slope away from the barn, while she stayed mostly dry. She scanned the sky for funnel clouds, then thought that as many as fifty tornadoes are expected in Colorado every year, most of them in June.

She stroked the stallion’s neck. Tornadoes are more common near Kelsey’s home in Sallisaw, Oklahoma where her mom went to work for Janice Moran at Blue Ribbon Downs when she was eleven. There wasn’t much chance of one hurting Tomar. He paused beside her. Strong gusts of wind lifted her short brown curls.

While all the horses bucked, reared, pranced, and ran around their stalls, Kelsey began to think of her dad who left her mom with no money and no job.

They were evicted from their rented house before her mom found a job cleaning stalls for Janice at Blue Ribbon Downs in Sallisaw. Now, her mom helped train horses and Kelsey cleaned stalls. Tomar was the best thing about cleaning stalls. He was a beautiful sorrel stallion with a flaxen mane and tail, and he was going to win them a lot of money! His name was Spanish which means taking the gold. He would live up to his name.

A piece of woven sunscreen tore loose. Kelsey closed her eyes as rain stung her freckled cheeks. As the woven screen flapped up and down, the horses shied away from it. Kelsey caught the end of the flapping cloth and looked at the rip where a grommet was torn out. It looked more like a cut than a rip in the new cloth screen. With a piece of bale twine from the trash can, she tied the screen back in place.

Tomar continued to race around his ten-by-ten stall. He reared then wheeled while up on his hind legs. She rubbed and scratched his neck when he stopped for a moment.

Why would anyone cut the screen next to his stall? Did someone want him to be upset and expend too much energy? That would affect the race! If Tomar won tomorrow’s race she would have $10 to spend any way she wanted to. If he won the grade three Quarter Horse Derby on Labor Day, the biggest stakes race at Derbyrun Downs, the bonus would be $4,000. With $10, maybe I could buy something that would impress Blaine. She thought of the six-foot-tall security guard’s fantastic smile and bright blue eyes. Kelsey remembered looking up at him when she came through the stable gate that morning. So many boys at the track were short because jockeys couldn’t weigh very much. I’m bigger than most of them and they don’t look at me twice, but Blaine smiled and was nice. He noticed me. Maybe he would invite me to a movie. He’s cool. She knew her mom was right when she said, We can’t afford any more clothes right now.

Tomar nuzzled Kelsey’s hand before he circled the stall and kicked his heels again.

When the violent storm ended, the horses became quiet. Wind ceased. The sun came out. The biggest, prettiest rainbow Kelsey had ever seen decorated the eastern sky. A wide band of red at the top was followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet at the bottom of the arc. Both ends reached the rolling green hills east of the racetrack. Breathing in clean air, Kelsey thought that she likes Colorado. It is far away from the man who left us poor.

Chapter 2: THE RACE

Kelsey liked cleaning all the stalls and barn aisles for Janice then feeding and giving water to the horses but wished it paid more.

Tomar seemed to like the red ball. He began playing with it after eating his fill of bright green grass hay and drinking some clean water. When all the chores were done, Kelsey and her mom walked to their trailer home in the track employees’ RV trailer park. They went to bed after a light supper because work would start again at 5 a.m.

Friday morning was sunny, so as the racetrack dried, its condition changed from heavy to muddy. It might be good for late-afternoon races but was not expected to be fast. Kelsey studied the race program she got from the cafeteria. She wanted to watch the race with Saira so she could hear her friend’s comments about the race and enjoy her company. She would notice things Kelsey might miss but would need to know in order to be a racehorse trainer.

Tomar was definitely the best horse in the third race. He should win easily. Kelsey and Saira sat in the grandstand, sipping cold lemonade during the first two races, but when it was time for Tomar’s race at 1:50 p.m., they were next to the paddock fence. The announcer said the track was rated muddy and Tomar El Oro coming from post position four was the betting favorite, with jockey Eustacio Rios in the irons. Kelsey watched the proud look on Saira’s face when he mentioned her papa and wondered what it was like to have the good relationship Saira had with her papa, so unlike her nonexistent relationship with Pete Kelley.

Janice took the tiny, lightweight saddle from Eustacio Rios and saddled Tomar while Loren held the pony horse, Chub, between the saddling boxes and the track. Tomar jumped around a little in anticipation of the race but was reasonably well behaved. His jockey, Saira’s papa, stood beside the number four marker wearing track colors, gold silks.

Tomar’s owner’s silks are a blue and white checkerboard. Why are Tomar and your papa wearing track colors? Kelsey asked Saira.

I don’t know, but isn’t oro or gold appropriate for a horse named Tomar El Oro? Saira answered. Probably the owners’ silks were muddy after the first or second race.

Two outriders wearing bright red shirts and helmets were mounted on tall black horses as they waited in the paddock near the track gate.

The announcer called, Jockeys up.

A trainer, who led a tall, brown gelding to him, gave the jockey standing by the one-marker a leg up. As he rode the racehorse toward the pony horse, the jockey by the two-marker was legged up onto a gray filly, and the jockey by three was seated on a bay.

Kelsey watched closely as Eustacio Rios got a leg up onto Tomar El Oro. Tomar pranced at first then walked quietly toward Chub as Janice Moran took Chub’s reins from her mom. She mounted a western saddle on the colorful paint gelding then handed the lead from Tomar’s halter to Janice and left the paddock.

When all twelve jockeys were mounted, the post parade began. One outrider rode ahead of the colorful line of racehorses. The other followed the last ones. The horses jogged or loped past the grandstand where over three thousand Friday afternoon spectators watched the horses or placed last-minute bets. Kelsey and Saira hurried to the barrier between the spectator area in front of the grandstand and the track where Tomar loped easily beside Chub. His green saddlecloth displayed the number four.

The tote on the other side of the track showed each horse’s name, post position, current betting odds, minutes until the race would start, and track condition.

The race starts in three minutes, Kelsey said as she watched Janice remove Tomar’s halter and ride Chub off the track.

Eustacio Rios, Saira’s papa, rode Tomar at a slow warm-up gallop, then turned him and came back past the grandstand. They loped past the green monster where the race steward and men in green shirts were ready to load the horses. Eustacio Rios turned Tomar around again and trotted to the green starting gate.

Tomar is still the betting favorite, Saira said. Your mother doesn’t bet on races, does she?

No, we can’t afford it, but if a horse Janice trained wins, she lets me keep $10 of my wages. The rest of my paycheck helps make the truck and trailer payment.

How many horses Janice has trained have won races this June? Saira asked. Three. They’re loading Tomar into the gate! Kelsey felt excitement build and knew her face must be flushed. Tomar walked into the gate quietly and stood still as eight more horses were loaded. Two horses were acting up in their stalls, including the one in stall five next to Tomar. The moment the gate closed behind the post twelve horse, the front of the starting gate opened.

They’re off! the announcer shouted.

Kelsey strained to keep her eyes on Tomar through Janice’s binoculars. A crowd of people pushed in around her. It looked as if he came out of gate four in the lead, but he wasn’t leading now. A tight line of nose-to-nose horses had formed ahead of the sorrel stallion. Gradually, five horses pulled ahead of the line, plunging straight down the track. Tomar was not among them. The race would not be long enough for any horse to come around the outside and win. In only 17 seconds, pounding hooves were splashing mud onto all but three leaders who ran nose to nose. Kelsey saw a mud-covered Tomar El Oro gallop slowly far behind all the rest of the field. Eustacio Rios was whipping him furiously. Eighteen and twenty-seven seconds after the race started, two leaders crossed the wire, then both the tote and the announcer informed the spectators, "It was