The Significant Seven by John McEvoy Read Free Book Online Page B

of
Racing Daily.
Tenuta had to shoo an old black-and-white cat off his own spring-blown chair before he could sit down. “Move, Tuxedo,” he ordered. The cat gave him a baleful look and took her feline time. Tenuta’s chair creaked like a Halloween fright house door when he plunked his chunky form into it.
    Leaning forward in his noisy chair, Tenuta looked at Doyle. “Aren’t you the fella that worked at Monee Park when Rambling Rosie was running there?”
    “That’s me. That was a great summer and fall.”
    Tenuta’s look was now more respectful. “My old friend Tom Eckrosh, who trained Rambling Rosie, told me about you. Didn’t you save his life?”
    “His, mine, and several other peoples’.”
    “You had to kill somebody, right?” Tenuta said softly.
    “Right,” Doyle said, then changed the subject by walking over to examine the photos on the wall behind Tenuta. He said, “You must have had a lot of fun training The Badger Express for that partnership.” The largest photo showed all of The Significant Seven surrounding their wonder horse in the Keeneland winner’s circle. Tenuta was dwarfed by most of the men, as was jockey Davey Morales.
    “That was The Badger’s sixth straight stakes win. He had a dozen stakes win all told when he was retired the following year.”
    Doyle said, “That’s a happy-looking bunch of owners.”
    “They were that, all right,” Tenuta said, “and real, real good guys. They always staked my barn help when the horse won. And he won enough money to make my fifteen percent of his earnings into a pretty good pile. Enough for me and my wife to buy a small farm down in Florida. We’ll retire there some day.”
    Doyle continued to examine the frame containing The Badger Express’ lifetime past performances. The horse’s career earnings were slightly more than $3 million. He whistled softly, calculating that Tenuta had gleaned some $450,000 from his trainee’s heroics.
    “And they paid how much for him? A hundred thousand?”
    “Ninety-five,” Tenuta said proudly. “One of racing’s greatest bargains. And I helped pick him out at the Kentucky sale.”
    Doyle returned to his chair in front of the desk. He said, “What horse is that back there that you were working on?”
    Tenuta said, “The meanest creature to come on the racetrack during my time. His name is Editorialist. Great-looking horse. One of the fastest milers in the Midwest. And one with the worst temperament. Editorialist doesn’t like people, he doesn’t like other horses, he probably doesn’t like himself. But he loves to run. And he
can.
I won three stakes with him last year and one already here at this meeting.”
    “I remember reading about him,” Doyle said. “He was a fairly expensive sales yearling, wasn’t he? With good breeding?”
    “Yeah, but all his ‘good breeding’ is in his pedigree, not in his nature. If it weren’t for that groom back there with Editorialist, Jose Ruiz, I don’t believe I could keep the horse here. Some grooms can communicate with horses like nobody else. They have a gift for it. Jose is one of those, thank God. I go to take a look at Editorialist in his stall and he stands in there in the corner, baring his teeth at me. Other times, he turns his back on me, and drops a load.
    “But with Jose, it’s a whole different story. Jose comes up to Editorialist’s stall door and the horse’s ears are pricked, standing straight up, he’s happy to see Jose. A horse is like a person. You don’t need words to figure out what they want, what they don’t want. You just have to take your time with them. And, of course, if you’re lucky enough, have a guy like Jose Ruiz working for you.”
    “Who owns Editorialist?” Doyle said.
    “The Significant Seven, that syndicate. You just missed one of the owners, Arnie Rison. He came out to watch Editorialist work this morning. Came with his daughter Renee. Look, they’re over there at their car, talking to one of my