Casey's Shadow Page #3

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and easy. Build up the leg muscles.

- For $30,000, you could get a new truck.

- Build up the bone.

And Randy could go

to California to ride.

Get some of them pricey vitamins.

I'm gonna build a desire to win. That's

the hardest thing to teach a horse.

- To want to win bad enough to win.

- Yeah.

Spare me. You got no food in the

house. I'll put the rest in the bank.

That horse ain't mine to sell. You

know what I'd get for a deal like this?

If I was lucky...

a kiss on the ass.

Excuse me.

If we nominate Shadow for

All-American before the week...

it'll cost us four grand. If we wait

till August 1, it'll cost us 15 grand.

I think we ought to

nominate him now.

Fifteen grand for a 2-year-old colt

to run in a 2-year-old horserace?

The purse is 1 million dollars, Calvin.

One million dollars.

They raise it among the horsemen.

Texans, mostly. Gamblers.

They enter their colts as yearlings.

Then they run them at 2

when they're still green as willows.

If you wait till August of the horse's

second year, you kind of know.

You don't take the gamble,

so it costs you 15 grand.

Enter now, take the gamble,

it costs you only four.

Or just forget about

the All-American.

We can clean up match racing

Shadow this summer.

Nobody's seen him. Nobody's heard

of him. We can win a bundle on him.

He's got no real chance

in the All-American anyway.

- Well, that makes more sense to me.

- No, it don't make no sense at all.

This horse is the best. And you

wanna pee it away on match races?

This is a great horse.

I know a great horse when I see one.

- It seems I've heard that before.

- You said that about Eagle Leader.

And Run Spot Run. Remember that?

And neither one of them could

beat my dog with a full bladder.

Run him in a couple of easy

races to give him the experience...

then take him to Ruidoso early,

so he can get used to the altitude.

I wanna make money off that colt this

summer. I wanna run him every week.

You'll break him down, Calvin.

Well, if you don't wanna run him,

I'll have to get another trainer.

I don't want to have to do it, because

I know you brought him along good.

- I'll pay the four grand.

- What?

I'll pay it.

- For what percentage of the colt?

- Name it.

- Ten percent.

- Fine.

Come on, Calvin. We're taking all...

Wait a minute.

We ought to get at least 25 percent,

maybe even 40.

Ten's fine.

- You're hopeless.

- Calvin, all this says...

is that I decide what happens to the

colt between now and the All-American.

- What happens after the All-American?

- After the All-American...

you're gonna sell him to Sarah

Blue for one million dollars.

You're gonna buy

the New Orleans Saints...

and you're gonna retire to Tahiti

where the women don't wear no tops.

And where are you

gonna get you $4000?

- Hey, Buddy, did you talk to the bank?

- They laughed.

- Jimmy Collard?

- That was a waste of time.

Broussard?

Let's see, he said he'd see hell freeze

over before he'd loan you 20 cents.

Damn.

You know how Mike Marsh trains his

to jump out of the gate the way they do?

With an electric cattle prod. Man,

when that gate opens, they move.

It's how come they flip over

backwards in the gate too.

And his jocks exercise with an

electric charge in their sticks.

Them horses get so they jump

20 feet when you touch them.

You making a study of Marsh

and his training ways?

It's just interesting.

You know how many horses that

son of a b*tch lost this year?

Nineteen of the finest babies there is...

he's broke down, sent to pasture

or killed outright in one year.

Well, if you're gonna win with

2-year-olds, you're gonna lose some.

- It's all part of the game, Daddy.

- If you like that way of winning...

you go work for Marsh, that son

of a b*tch. I don't wanna know you.

Just keep the meter running.

Maybe I can second mortgage my truck.

Sh*t you can. You couldn't sell it

for scrap. Who'd loan you money on it?

No, man, not my truck. You're

not borrowing on my truck. No way.

He's gonna win the All-American. Ten

percent of the trainer's take is $30,000.

Ten percent ownership

of the colt is 30,000 more.

Ten percent for the jockey

is another 30,000.

What's the matter with you? Can't you

add? Didn't you see that colt run?

- Not my truck. No way.

- I've raised me a litter of fools.

- Mr. Lloyd Bourdelle?

- That's me.

- I'm Sarah Blue.

- Mrs. Blue?

I thought you just raced mostly in

California, Ohio and New Mexico.

What are you doing in Louisiana?

I'm running some of my older horses

this year at Delta. Trying it out.

- Well, it's an honor to meet you.

- Thank you.

- Could I come in a minute?

- Oh, sure. Come on in. Come on in.

I'll just get this out of here. Clean up.

Buddy, we can go in the kitchen.

Would you like to have a cup of

coffee, a beer, a Coke or something?

No, thanks. Nothing.

Buddy's just cleaning up a little.

- Sure Hit must be almost 20 now.

- That's correct.

- That's quite a horse.

- Yeah, quite a horse.

Lots of stories about you and

that horse, sleeping in his stall...

feeding him Milky Ways.

- Never gets tired of Milky Ways.

- Fine producing stud too.

- Yeah, better than Aspiration.

Yes, ma'am.

Of course, Patterson breeds Aspiration

to everything this side of a jackass.

I don't do that with Sure Hit.

Thirty triple-A mares a year.

- That way you improve the line.

- Yes, ma'am.

I'm interested in improving the line.

I like to think that over the years

Sure Hit's improved the line.

Well, he has. No doubt about that.

- I don't breed him to scrub mares.

- No, ma'am.

I been meaning to retire him

if I can find a colt with potential.

Well, that'd be hard to do. It'd be

hard to find a colt to follow Sure Hit.

This your son?

Yes, ma'am. That's my oldest boy,

Lloyd Jr. We call him Buddy.

Ma'am.

I understand you're near as

good a trainer as your dad.

- You want to come to work for me?

- Anytime. Yes, ma'am.

- Would you like a beer?

- Oh, no, thanks, Buddy. Nothing.

Bring me one.

I understand you have one of Sure

Hit's colts, one we didn't know about.

That's correct.

- And that he has some speed.

- Well, he's real young yet.

- Bringing him to Ruidoso?

- I might be.

- Are you speaking for the owner?

- Yes.

I have a percentage and

control through Labor Day.

- Then you are coming.

- Well, most likely.

- Yeah, well, I'd like to buy him.

- Not until after the All-American.

I'll pay you $50,000 outright.

Today. Right now.

Fifty thousand for a colt

that never run a race?

I'll give you a personal check

for the entire amount.

He's not for sale just yet. Not just

yet. He's not for sale right now.

But we'd sell you an option on him.

For how much?

Five thousand against a purchase

price to be negotiated.

- I assume that's all right with you?

- With me? Yes, ma'am.

That's all right. You bet. Yes, ma'am.

That's fine. Fine. Just fine.

Dad.

I love your house.

- That's for sale right now.

- See you in Ruidoso.

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