"If he continues to improve,"
Farrel told himself, "he's worth a bet--and a mighty heavy one.
Nevertheless, Panchito's grandfather, leading his field by six open
lengths in the home-stretch, going strong and a sure-fire winner,
tangled his feet, fell on his nose and cost my father a thousand steers
six months before they were ready for market. I ought to leave John
Parker to do all the betting on Panchito, but--well, he's a
race-horse--and I'm a Farrel."
"When will Panchito be ripe to enter in a mile and a sixteenth race?"
he asked Parker.
"About the middle of November. The winter meeting will be on at Tia
Juana, Baja California, then, and Leighton wants to give him a few
try-outs there in fast company over a much shorter course. We will win
with him in a field of ordinary nags and we will be careful not to win
too far or too spectacularly. We have had his registry brought up to
date and of course you will be of record as his owner. In view of our
plans, it would never do for Danny and me to be connected with him in
any way."
Don Mike nodded and rode over to Agua Caliente Basin to visit Bill
Conway. Mr. Conway was still on the job, albeit Don Mike hazarded a
guess that the old schemer had spent almost two hundred thousand
dollars. His dam was, as he facetiously remarked, "taking concrete
shape," and he was rushing the job in order to have the structure
thoroughly dry and "set" against the coming of the winter rains.
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