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.

While Kelsey's father, who had searched for clues, d

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeanne Ann Off Publishing
• Release date: Oct 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956741513

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

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fter Kelsey and Saira watched Saira’s papa, Eustacio Rios, ride the winner of the next race, Saira exclaimed, Vamos! Come on! and ran to watch the race replay on a big screen television behind the seats.

Following like a puppy, Kelsey really wanted to go find out why Tomar El Oro did so badly in his race. The closed-circuit screen showed a tall gray Quarter Horse trained by Maribelle Rand win by a nose over a small brown horse trained by Ed Anthony. Kelsey noticed that Eustacio Rios didn’t whip the gray the way he did Tomar.

Sloppy mud made it a slow race, much slower than the track record of :19.70 that the program says was set by Special to Us for four hundred yards on July 23, 2006, Saira said.

Are you going to watch the next race? Kelsey asked. Yes, sure. Papa rides in it too, and so does Angel. Who will you root for, your boyfriend or your papa?

Both. Saira smiled. If Papa wins, we make mas dinero and we can always use the money. If Angel wins, he will take me to a movie. How could I not want a winning tie?

Tomar lost. I want to talk to Janice. I’m going to the barn, Kelsey said as she twisted a curl nervously.

At the barn Kelsey’s mom and Janice had washed the mud off Tomar. He pranced around under the hot walker, not at all tired from racing.

What happened? Kelsey demanded. Eustacio Rios thinks Tomar lost because of sore hooves. Kelsey watched Tomar’s legs carefully for any sign of lameness, the way she knew Janice would have already done.

"The way he moves, I’m sure his feet aren’t sore, Janice said.

Could it have been romance with the gray mare that started from post two? Is that filly why he didn’t run to win? Kelsey asked.

Stallions frequently don’t make as good race horses as geldings because they don’t keep their mind on getting ahead of the other horses, Janice said. Many mares want to lead the herd. But some stallions do too, and until today Tomar was one of those. Remember that Tomar wears blinders, which don’t let him look at horses coming out of other starting gates.

I watched Tomar in the gate. He was quiet and he wasn’t sniffing the air for mare scent.  He looked ready to race."

Why did Tomar finish last then? Why didn’t he try to win? Kelsey swallowed hard.

Sometimes we never know. Janice replied.

Kelsey remembered Tomar was wearing a gold and white blinder hood and thought again about the mysterious voices she heard from the roof and wondered again about Eustacio Rios. Is Saira’s papa a sleazy cheat like my dad? Saira is fun. I like to be with her. She trusts her papa completely. Kelsey hated to think Saira’s papa was dishonest.

Interrupting Kelsey’s thoughts, Janice said, Go to the quarantine barn and find out what’s happening. A federal government veterinarian was there. I saw his van drive through the stable gate.

As Kelsey walked sluggishly toward quarantine, Saira skipped up behind her. Papa didn’t win that Thoroughbred claiming, but Angel did! Papa’s horse was fourth. Neither of them rides in the next two. Where are you dragging off to?

Quarantine barn, Kelsey said.

Does Janice have a new horse?

Every horse that came to the track had to stay in quarantine until the Racing Secretary had the health and registration certificates.  Then they could be assigned to a stall.

No, she sent me to find out why the federal government veterinarian is there. Look several veterinarians are talking with a man by the far end of the quarantine barn.

The girls stood by barn 30, the quarantine barn in the southeast corner of the isolation area and listened.

Looks like we better draw blood to send to the lab. Keep this horse here, the federal veterinarian said. I’ll call you when the results are back in four days. Make sure everyone is warned to put fly repellant on every horse every day, especially inside the ears. Drain those ponds inside the mile oval.

Drain the ponds? someone, asked.

Yes, you need to try to get rid of black flies and other biting insects.

Should we have the area sprayed?

Good idea. Don’t use anything this horse touches for another horse. Wear disposable rubber gloves when you touch him. It could be Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (VSV).  Even if it is an allergic reaction or from eating toxic plants or insecticides, it won’t hurt to reduce the fly population during the current outbreak of VSV.

I’ve heard VSV symptoms look just like Hoof and Mouth disease, which hasn’t been in the United States since 1929. It is causing financial ruin in other countries right now, Kelsey heard Cody say. She wondered why Cody was with the veterinarians.

We have to prove Hoof and Mouth disease hasn’t come back, the federal government veterinarian said. We also have to prevent VSV from getting into a herd of cattle or hogs. It’s financially devastating when it does. Horses get over VSV in about two weeks, so just give this horse 35 cc penicillin daily to stop any secondary infection.

The man who spoke these ominous words stepped into a pan of brown liquid, then removed his overshoes, rubber gloves, and brown coveralls, got in the van, and drove out the gate.

When the men were gone, Kelsey hurried to look at the sick horse. Saira followed. Kelsey shuddered when she saw oozing blisters and sores on his mouth and nostrils. He’s drooling.

Look at his hooves. There are red places on the coronary bands, Saira added. The girls hurried away to report their findings to Janice Moran and her assistant, Kelsey’s mom.

A gruesome sight greeted Kelsey and Saira on Monday as they walked from their trailer homes to the barn at five in the morning.

Gross! Kelsey said, making a face. A dump truck from the rendering plant was hauling a dead horse out the security gate.  That dead horse was the same chestnut color as the sick horse with the oozing blisters and sores.

Repugnante! Saira replied.

Yeah, repugnant just like the sign in the guard shack that always bothers me. You know the one that says No dead. horses hauled out on race days. Now I see why. Yuck! Kelsey said as she twisted a curl.

I guess they come early on Monday cause it’s jockey’s day off except when the Fourth of July is on Monday or on Labor Day when they have Monday races, Saira said.

There aren’t many people around the barns Monday unless they feed horses, like us. We see stuff the betting public is protected from, like this.

I’ve never seen this before! Over sixteen hundred horses raced here for three months last year. Only five died because of accidents and none from sickness, Saira said.

All week Kelsey heard scuttlebutt about the dead horse. She heard Janice tell Doc Rooney, The dead stallion was a stakes winner of $401,255.00, named Winner on The Run. There was a big life insurance policy on him.

Later in the week Kelsey’s mom told her, Test results came back from the lab. That dead horse did have Vesicular Stomatitis.  The federal veterinarian has quarantined the track. No horse that’s here can leave until 30 days after the last lesion is gone.

Kelsey asked, Does it mean no racing?

No, just that no horse can leave. We need to get ready for Friday’s races.  The tack store should have more rubber water buckets. We need two. And don’t forget the blue and white bridle Janice ordered for Tomar.  Charlie wanted the bridle to match his jockey silks. Did you know Charlie Hank owns Tomar?

Janice told me a while back. He owns a filly too. I’ll put the buckets and bridle on Janice account.

While Kelsey went past barn 19 on the way to the tack store she heard Ed Anthony, one of the horse trainers, say The last lesion went out the gate in the rendering truck. Why do we have to wait 30 days to haul horses out of here?

Later, Saira told Kelsey, Papa heard that the insurance company said someone killed the horse for the insurance money. They don’t intend to pay, pending investigation.

Kelsey said, I heard Ed Anthony tell Janice Moran someone put dry battery acid on his back, and it worked its way down to damage his intestines.

How does Ed Anthony know that? Maribelle Rand trained the horse. Ed Anthony doesn’t like anything she does. He’s always accusing her of something. Maybe he knows because he did it.  My papa rides horses for both trainers. He told me about their feud," Saira said.

On Thursday Kelsey surprised Maribelle Rand snooping around the west side of barn 20. Because Nanee the goat gobbled up any grain that was spilled by Janice barn, she didn’t have a cat. Maribelle trained horses on the east side of barn 19 east of barn 20 where Janice Moran trained horses.

Hello, Ms. Rand. Can I help you find something?

Yes, have you seen my yellow and white kitten? She’s missing, Maribelle said.

Sure, a week ago by your barn when I went to the kitchen for ice, Kelsey answered. Cute kitten. I petted her.

Maribelle moved on to the next barn west, barn 21. Kelsey wondered what she carried in a paper bag. Dogs weren’t allowed in the barn area, but cats were welcome because they caught mice. Lots of mice came in from the pastures surrounding Derbyrun Downs. There was spilled grain to attract them. Maybe she had cat food in the bag, or was it dry battery acid?

Friday while Doc Rooney was injecting Bute, a painkiller, into a horse being prepared to race, he said to Kelsey, Vesicular Stomatitis doesn’t kill most horses. They just get sore mouths and sometimes-sore feet.  Most horses don’t even stop eating like cattle do. The dead horse didn’t die of VSV!

He didn’t? Why did he die?

Necropsy showed severe damage to his gut, but it wasn’t from colic or Bute. It was as if a huge dose of stomach acid went into his intestines, yet nothing was abnormal between the stomach and intestine. We haven’t figured it out.

Kelsey thought of the dry battery acid she heard Ed Anthony talks about. Was it the cause of death?

Later Kelsey saw Maribelle’s kitten when she passed barn 19 on the way to the kitchen to get ice. Maribelle was having a loud argument with Ed Anthony who trained on the west side of barn 19. Kelsey stopped to listen.

"Why are you taking up barn space with that lame horse? Every stall is needed for horses that can run, Maribelle said.

No horse can leave during quarantine. If you want another stall, fix the shredded one where that idiot horse of yours kicked holes in the metal sides, Ed replied.

Streaking Money is not an idiot! He isn’t well trained.

Are you saying I can’t train horses? I do a better job than you do. Maribelle said.

We’ll see about that! Ed Anthony turned to leave.

If you didn’t try to race sore horses you wouldn’t have them flipping in the gate to avoid running, Maribelle said.

The starting gate is built wrong. The shelves they put in there for the gate men who load horses are flank high on a horse. If a touchy horse bump one with his flank, he freaks out. That’s what causes flipping.

So do sore feet! If you train a horse right, he gets used to having his flanks touched.

Ed faced Maribelle again. Did you pay the farrier to make Delante lame?

Of-course not! Did you kill Winner on The Run?

Ed angrily grabbed Maribelle by her arms, shook her, then shoved her back against the barn wall and slugged her on the face. She splashed mud on Ed with her boot and yelled loudly.

Blaine Carthege in his green and white Security Guard uniform drove up in Derbyrun Downs green and white security car. He must have heard the commotion.

As he got out of the car, Maribelle said in her most feminine voice, Ed hit me.

Blaine said, Put your hands on the wall above your head! Spread eagle! Get your feet apart! You are under arrest for assault. Ed, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you can’t afford one, the court can appoint one for you. Do you understand?

Yes. I didn’t mean to hurt that aggravating woman.

Blaine placed handcuffs on Ed Anthony’s wrists and marched him to the back seat of the car. Get in.

Kelsey watched Blaine with admiration. His revolver remained in its holster. A nightstick hung from his belt. Although Ed was slow to spread his legs, the balding horse trainer had obeyed the nineteen-year-old’s authority. Blaine’s cool, she thought.

Blaine winked at Kelsey as he sat down in the driver’s seat. She smiled and watched until the car left through the stable gate, then went to the track kitchen without speaking to