“I’ll see the stewards and explain,” said the owner. “He’s only in
for the workout, and perhaps they’ll stand for it. Sure you’re strong
enough to handle the colt?”
The owner had observed the cough, and Jaundice checked it with an
effort.
“Yes, Mister Phil, I’m all right. Just caught a cold. Get this mount
for me, Mister Phil. I’ve got to plant Lord James decent.”
“That old bum dead at last?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve got to get a hundred and fifty to plant him, and the
boys ain’t kicking in fast. Let me ride this Doc Grausman hoss and I’ll
plant Lord James swell, like his family would want him.”
The owner passed over a twenty-dollar banknote. What he told the track
officials no one knows, but when the fourth race was called, Jaundice,
carefully hiding his cough, rode forth for the first time in four years
wearing the colors of his old stable.
The bookmakers were laying thirty to one against Doc Grausman, and a
wit in the ring said it was ten to one the colt, twenty to one the boy.
What was not known was that Jaundice had taken the money that had been
contributed to bury Lord James and wagered it three ways, straight,
place, and show, on Doc Grausman. A new generation of jockeys faced
the start, a generation that knew nothing of the skill of the boy who
had ridden champions. The new boys, with the contempt that youth holds
for the “has-been,” jeered at Jaundice, and hurled insulting epithets
at him as they wheeled and maneuvered for the advantage of the break.
Jaundice did not retort with oaths and vilifications as he would have
done in other days. He was afraid he would start to cough.
The barrier flashed. Jaundice had been holding Doc Grausman steady
during the milling of the others. Out of the corner of the eye he had
caught the betraying arm movement of the starter an instant before the
barrier flashed upward, had shot Doc Grausman at the starting line
just the instant it flickered past his nose, had beaten the start a
length and a half while the others were taking the first jump and sent
him roaring down the long straight-away for four and a half furlongs.
Riding him out desperately at the end, he held the lead by half a
length over the favorite.
As the horses paraded back past the stands, he held his lips tightly
pressed together. He staggered a little as he weighed out, and in the
paddock his lips were reddened. The strain of the ride had opened the
old wounds in his lungs.
An hour later he ordered the undertaker to give Lord James the best
funeral he could for one thousand two hundred dollars and paid over the
money. There remained for his share of the victory just twenty-seven
dollars.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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