Phantom Express

            Garzo was beside himself.  Not just Diaz and Manuel – but probably about 15 other workers were watching him being made the fool by this $400,000 horse.  Beating him all the way through the last eighth of the mile he went another uninterested 23 seconds.  The colt had made an ass out of him, finishing at two minutes, 31 seconds instead of the aimed-at 2:15, a terrible effort.  Actually, he could have done better with a jog cart than he had with a racing bike.

            He jumped off of the bike and yelled at Diaz – “Get him into the barn and put him on the cross ties.  The bastard is not going to do that to me.”

            Manuel and Diaz removed the sulkey, and Manuel led him into the barn where he placed him in cross ties and stripped the harness from him.  Phantom was panting as Garzo came out of his office.  He said, “You’re not needed here.  I’ll call you when I want you.”  Garzo proceeded to shut the doors to the barn.  He went up to the colt and stood in front of him, staring at him.  The colt’s ears were pinned back, and his eyes drawn wide.  To Garzo there was no doubt that he was under challenge.  He grabbed the colt’s halter, breathed heavily into his nostrils, and kept a dead stare on him.  He did this for close to three minutes when he stepped away and proceeded to whip the colt viciously all across its body.  As a denouement, he took a large, thin stick and broke it over the colt’s head, near his left eye.

            Garzo went out and found Manuel who stood along the fence.  “Clean the bastard up!”  He walked a few steps and turned around, “Oh, and don’t treat him like he’s your girlfriend, you spic.”  He saw that there were still seven track people standing around the fence talking quietly to each other.  “Hey!  The show’s over.  Let’s get some work done!”