of a winning team again. Best of all, when he walked into the yard, was the rumble of joy from Playboy, Ilkley Hall, little Gifted Child, wayward Preston and all Shade’s other horses, which he’d loved and understood. Now they would be his again.
51
Marius was almost as devastated by Collie’s departure as by Olivia’s, but again he was too proud and too obstinate to beg him to come back. The story, leaked by Harvey-Holden, was soon all over the racing pages. This upset Marius as well as his owners.
Bertie Barraclough, for example, was very unhappy with Count Romeo. After the fiasco at Rutminster, Marius entered the horse in a maiden hurdle at Stratford. Giving the ride to Rogue, he told him to get his bat out. As a result, the handsome Count was up with the leaders. Then he suddenly caught sight of himself on the big screen, swerved right, cantered across the track to admire himself, to the hysterics of the crowd, and came in last.
‘Racing is all a question of whether,’ quipped Harvey-Holden, ‘whether Count Romeo is going to get off his fat black arse or not.’ This was quoted in the Racing Post and read by Bertie, who disapproved of bad language.
Rogue was so angry he shouted at Marius in the unsaddling enclosure, ‘Go back to school. I’m not riding for you any more until you learn to train horses.’
There was speculation in the yard as to who would take over Collie’s job. Josh, Tresa, Michelle and Tommy were all in the frame. But Marius was notoriously bad at decisions and appointed no one. Foul-tempered by day, by night he drowned his sorrows, staggering out with a torch long after evening stables to give his horses a last handful of feed and check their doors were shut. Invariably, next morning Tommy would find the wheelbarrow turned over, feed scattered all over the yard, and would hastily sweep up before the other lads appeared.
One particularly freezing morning, when Tommy was admiring the winter stars and breaking ice on the horses’ water bowls, a flash sports car drove up. Bulked out by two pairs of long johns, breeches, three polo necks, a body protector, a fleece under the jacket, a scarf, a bandanna under the hat, ear muffs and gloves, the figure jumping out was unrecognizable. All anyone could see was the eyes.
‘Like those burkas your women wear,’ said Tresa dismissively to Rafiq, who was shivering worse than Mrs Wilkinson because he couldn’t afford many clothes.
‘Who the hell is it?’ Josh asked Tommy, as Marius legged the stranger up on to a new horse who hadn’t been on the horse walker or done any road work. Now, wired to the moon, the horse put in a mighty buck, then galloped down the drive, raced towards the gate into the road and screamed to a halt without unseating her.
‘She can certainly ride,’ said Tommy.
During two more lots, the stranger had both her horses flying like angels. Later, when everyone was having breakfast, she took off her hat and bandanna.
‘God, one gets sweaty under these things.’
It was Amber Lloyd-Foxe.
Michelle, who never bothered to ride out when she had a period, was furious when she found out.
‘What’s she doing here? I hope Marius isn’t considering her for head lad. That class always stick together. She probably went to school with Marius’s sister.’
‘Bollocks, she’s only nineteen,’ said Josh. ‘She just wants to ride races.’
Amber, hearing Collie had gone and Marius was short-staffed, had not only offered to ride for nothing, merely to get experience, but also to help out in the yard, even to drive the lorry.
Reluctantly, Marius agreed and, also reluctantly, noticed how beautifully Mrs Wilkinson went for her over both fences and hurdles.
‘You ride very well for a girl,’ Rafiq told her.
‘I ride very well full stop,’ snapped Amber.
Rafiq, Tommy, Angel, even Josh and Tresa were delighted to have her around, because it bugged the hell out of Michelle that Amber wasn’t remotely afraid of her.
It was also noticed that Rogue had made it up with Marius and was coming down more often to school horses. To begin with he indulged in horseplay on the gallops, pulling the bridle over Mrs Wilkinson’s head, goosing Amber, leaving a welt on her bottom when he whacked her with his whip, but after she slashed him across the face with her own whip he backed off.
52
As Mrs Wilkinson had hardly exerted herself at Worcester, Marius shortly afterwards entered her for another maiden hurdle at