10
William the Conqueror
It was a bright hot day and everything looked
perfect and about as perfect as they were going to get and Cameron
wondered what could possibly go wrong! Even if the horse did not
win it was its first race and he was sure its performance would
become far better in the future!
Hanks was transformed now and looked a
perfectly normal jockey, and not the soldier they knew, and his
weight had dropped and he looked skinny and even fragile, but very
determined to do his job! His knowledge in horse racing was great,
which had even surprised Simpson and Fogler, who thought they knew
everything about him, and they even thought he had a good chance of
winning the race. For one thing all the horses looked lethargic
compared to their horse, and the jockeys looked inexperienced.
The only major argument they had was
the name of the horse, which was Willy, which Hanks insisted in
calling it, which he claimed was after William the Conqueror, but Cameron was sure
it was named after a relative!
They had argued
over it with him as they could not imagine a horse with the name
becoming a leading racehorse! But Hanks insisted that it was a
great name and horse names never mattered that much, and that there
were many examples!
Willy still looked a monster even in the
light of day and sober and they still looked twice at it when they
had not seen it for a while, checking if they were imaging things,
and they were surprised that experienced people at the racecourse
had strange reactions to the horse and many stood with their mouths
wide open trying to grasp something, and some thought they were up
to something and checked on things.
He wondered if it could win and what the
outcome of the race would be, and he saw how prepared for the race
the other jockeys really were and their horses were more trained
than he had seen.
Near the starting line he stood beside Fogler
and Simpson at the front of the audience and watched Hanks
preparing himself for action and he wondered again why he was so
keen to have the horse and just how good he was at the game.
Fogler soon started handing them beers and he
grabbed his and opened it and drank thirstily and realized that he
had not had anything to eat and eyed up a place where he was sure
there was food, and decided to get over there later if he
could.
He wondered what he was missing about horse
racing, and realized that they probably had to make it big to do
anything worthwhile, as most sports.
When the starting gun blasted out he jumped
and was amazed at the speed the horses raced away and that Willy
left slow and uninterested in the race and he watched Hanks going
crazy trying to get it to move it, and he spotted what looked like
a glint of satisfaction on the horse’s face, and realized it was
the first glint of happiness he had seen on it since it had made an
expression in the pub. It was like it was being kept fully captive
against its will and would do anything it could to escape.
Simpson looked the happiest for some reason
and Cameron was sure he had bet on another horse or it losing!
Fogler at one point looked furious and clenched his fist and had to
calm himself!
Yet just when they had all packed in thinking
anything but a bigger disappointment was possible Cameron saw
something strange and that Willy was speeding up and his eyes had
changed to being bloodthirsty, and not just his furious look, and
his eyes were on the front horses and he looked as if he was going
to attack them and he accelerated faster than any animal he had
seen in person and he soon caught up with the horses and the front
horses, and Cameron was sure he was going to attack.
It was incredible the audience went crazy all
around them and Fogler spotted it and burst out laughing loudly and
cheered the horse on loudly and Simpson’s face dropped.
It was incredible! When Willy reached the
front horses they were at the finishing line and Hanks forced Willy
to race passed the finishing line before