Nothing at all except bidding in a sale ring. No work, no worry, no thought and care. It’s downright wicked to come and demand half of my profit.’
‘Who was it?’
‘I’m not going to tell you. You’re one of them, and I don’t trust you.’
‘So you sent her to the sales to take her chance.’
‘She should have made at least ten thousand. At least.’ She glared at me. ‘Don’t you agree?’
‘Twelve or fourteen, I would have thought.’
‘Of course she should.’
‘Didn’t you put a reserve on her?’ I asked.
‘Reserves are a racket in themselves,’ she said furiously. ‘But no, I didn’t. There was no reason why she shouldn’t make her price. Her breeding, her looks… you couldn’t fault her.’
‘And you didn’t go with her to Newmarket?’
‘It’s so far. And there’s too much to do here. I sent a groom with her. I couldn’t believe… I simply couldn’t believe it when she went for eighteen hundred. I didn’t hear that story about a heart murmur until two days afterwards when the man who bought her rang up to ask for the vet’s report.’
I thought about the general lack of prosperity about the place.
‘You needed her to make a good profit?’ I suggested.
‘Of course I did. She was the best foal I’ve had for years.’
‘But not the first request for a kick back?’
‘The worst,’ she said. ‘I’ve told them all… I always tell them… they’ve no right to what they do nothing to earn… but this time… it was wicked.’
I agreed with her. I said, ‘And for some time your yearlings have not been fetching good prices?’
‘For two years,’ she said fiercely. ‘You’re all in it. You know I won’t give kick backs so you won’t bid for my horses.’
She was wrong about us all being in it. I had bought several bargains at various sales when half my rivals had turned their backs. Bargains for me and my clients, disasters for the people who’d bred them. And it was always the small breeder, the honest or naive breeder who lost, because the big firms could look after themselves and others were crooks too and had some scandalous tricks of their own.
The kick back system probably stemmed from the Irish ‘luck penny’: if you bought a horse from an Irishman he gave you back a penny of your money for luck. A penny! What a laugh.
There was no harm in a breeder giving an agent a thank you present for getting him a good price for his horse. The harm came when the agent demanded it first. The crime came when he demanded it with threats and carried them out when he was refused.
Rumours rocketed round sale rings with the speed of light. I had heard the Winterfriend filly had a heart murmur ten minutes before she was sold, and I had believed it like everyone else.
I had often been told that the kick back lark was on the increase. Some breeders made the best of it and some positively welcomed it, because it more or less guaranteed a good price for their horses. Only the Mrs Huntercombes who wouldn’t play ball were coming to grief.
‘Well?’ she said belligerently. ‘Sophie said to ask your advice. So what is it?’
I was too much of a realist for Aunt Antonia. I knew she wouldn’t like what I would say, but I said it all the same.
‘You’ve three choices. The first is to pay the kick backs. You’d be better off in the end.’
‘I won’t.’ She narrowed her eyes in anger. ‘That’s exactly what I would have expected from one of you.’
‘The second,’ I said, ‘Is to sell your stud, raise a mortgage on the house and live on an annuity.’
The anger grew. ‘And just how do I get a fair price for my stallions and mares? And as for a mortgage… I already have one.’ From the way she said it I guessed it was the largest she could get.
‘Third,’ I said, ‘You could go every time to the sales when you sell a horse. Put a sensible reserve on it and get a friend to help with starting the bidding. Take a vet with you bristling with certificates. Tell the agents from the big firms, and as many other people as you can reach, whatever they may hear to the contrary, your horse is in good health, and offer to repay instantly if it is found to be not.’
She stared at me. ‘I haven’t the strength. It would be exhausting.’
‘You sell only six or seven