American fiction -- 20th century; American poetry -- 20th century; Short stories, American
We were jammed in tight and first a man in a long coat with a grey
tall hat and a whip folded up in his hand came out and then one after
another the horses, with the jocks up and a stable boy holding the
bridle on each side and walking along, followed the old guy. That big
yellow horse Kzar came first. He didn’t look so big when you first
looked at him until you saw the length of his legs and the whole way
he’s built and the way he moves. Gosh I never saw such a horse.
George Gardner was riding him and they moved along slow, back of the
old guy in the gray tall hat that walked along like he was the ring
master in a circus. Back of Kzar, moving along smooth and yellow in
the sun, was a good looking black with a nice head with Tommy
Archibald riding him and after the black was a string of five more
horses all moving along slow in a procession past the grandstand and
the pesage. My old man said the black was Kircubbin and I took a good
look at him and he was a nice looking horse all right but nothing
like Kzar.
Everybody cheered Kzar when he went by and he sure was one swell
looking horse. The procession of them went around on the other side
past the pelouse and then back up to the near end of the course and
the circus master had the stable boys turn them loose one after
another so they could gallop by the stands on their way up to the
post and let everybody have a good look at them. They weren’t at the
post hardly any time at all when the gong started and you could see
them way off across the infield all in a bunch starting on the first
swing like a lot of little toy horses. I was watching them through
the glasses and Kzar was running well back with one of the bays
making the pace. They swept down and around and came pounding past
and Kzar was way back when they passed us and this Kircubbin horse in
front and going smooth. Gee it’s awful when they go by you and then
you have to watch them go farther away and get smaller and smaller
and then all bunched up on the turns and then come around towards
into the stretch and you feel like swearing and goddaming worse and
worse. Finally they made the last turn and came into the straightaway
with this Kircubbin horse way out in front. Everybody was looking
funny and saying “Kzar” in sort of a sick way and they pounding
nearer down the stretch, and then something came out of the pack
right into my glasses like a horse-headed yellow streak and everybody
began to yell “Kzar” as though they were crazy. Kzar came on faster
than I’d ever seen anything in my life and pulled up on Kircubbin
that was going fast as any black horse could go with the jock
flogging hell out of him with the gad and they were right dead neck
and neck for a second but Kzar seemed going about twice as fast with
those great jumps and that head out—but it was while they were neck
and neck that they passed the winning post and when the numbers went
up in the slots the first one was 2 and that meant Kircubbin had won.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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