Hokkaido Horse Racing Story

After handing the pedigree chart back to Ogawa Jō, Kitano spoke slowly.

Xuhe Zhang's face tightened, and the A4 paper in his hand was inadvertently folded.

"But I accept it."

Kitano continued.

The three members of the Xuhe family showed joy on their faces at the same time.

For a newly established ranch, selling each foal is particularly difficult.

And at such a high price.

At this time, Kitano used the [Detector] for the last time.

The goal is still Flax2023.

【Growth type: Late bloomer】

At this point, all the [Detectors] worth one million yen have been used up.

The later the growth type, the slower the racehorse grows.

Late-maturing racehorses usually don't show their abilities until the second half of their fourth year of age.

It seems that there is a high probability of losing money.

Across the railing, Kitano touched Flax2023's head without much emotion.

Perhaps it was an unintentional resonance between the man and the horse, or perhaps it was due to the trust in the A-[Xian] value, or perhaps it was due to the mentality of a gambler at the end of his rope.

In short, Kitano did not stop the transaction.

Flax2023 seemed to be completely unaware of the upcoming transformation of its new owner. It was still looking around curiously with its pair of black, beady eyes.

Chapter 6 Pegasus Meteor Hammer

“That’s it for the two-year-old horse list.”

"Ah, thank you for your hard work."

"It's all part of our job. It's you, Master Tanaka, who's the one who's working hard, since you're in charge of so many racehorses."

"Haha, it's nothing."

After receiving the thin piece of paper from the Jockey Club staff, Junji Tanaka immediately flipped through the list of two-year-old horses that were about to be stabled.

"The Satomi family's horse—"

"You actually debuted directly in a local area?"

"It seems like Jazz Blues has produced a few more foals."

Tanaka's eyes quickly scanned the list, occasionally muttering a few comments to himself.

Due to the shortage of local manpower, trainers like him are each responsible for dozens or even hundreds of racehorses.

Even the central government is not immune to similar problems, but there is no doubt that the shortage of trainers and riders at the local level is much more serious.

Apart from the necessary "favor horses" every year, Tanaka is quite casual in his choice of horses to enter the stable.

Anyway, he has no shortage of racehorses that can win the bounty.

Soon, only the last few names were left on the list.

"This is."

After seeing a certain name, Tanaka frowned in confusion.

"Mejiro. Pegasus."

"Is it really okay to have a name like this?"

Most local horse owners are quite playful when naming their horses.

In order to increase the attention to local events, local horse racing associations often turn a blind eye during a round of review and allow some names that sound less serious to be reported to the JRA.

However, situations that are too extreme are actually not allowed.

Even if it passes the review of the Jockey Club, it can easily lead to legal disputes.

However, after seeing "Mr. Kitano" written in the horse owner information column, Tanaka quickly felt relieved.

As early as last month, he had heard of the name of this new horse owner.

"Then it's you."

His father is the Creator II, and his mother is the Casino Shuttle. The Ashima named Medaipei doesn't have a bloodline that is eye-catching.

But it doesn’t matter.

He randomly picked a few more horses from the list.

After folding the list in half and stuffing it directly into his pocket, the annual selection of horses for the stable was completed.

Before officially entering the stable, you have to personally confirm the horse's physical condition.

By the way, you can also see what kind of person that "Mr. Kitano" is.

"It seems Nishiken was only opened two years ago."

In the case of new horse owners and beginner production ranches, the quality of the horses is unlikely to be much better.

In this way, there is no need to trouble Hattori.

With this thought in mind, Tanaka called Genta Ochiai, another main rider in the stable.

Although they are called main battle riders, in fact the relationship between them is more like that of master and apprentice.

"Xun Tai, this year's stablemates have been confirmed. Come with me to take a look in a few days."

"Okay, Tanaka-sensei."

There was a quick answer from the other end of the line.

The next day, Nishiken Ranch.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Kitano!"

After being defeated again in the tug-of-war between a man and a horse, Xuhe Sheng fell heavily to the ground.

The weather in Hokkaido gradually warmed up, and beads of sweat dripped from the boy's face.

He tried to cover up his pain with heavy breathing.

Three days later, Flax2023, who has been renamed Medou Hakuba, will officially join the stable.

According to the agreement between Nishiken Ranch and Kitano Yuki when the transaction took place, the ranch will continue to take charge of the training before joining the stable.

At first, all the desensitization exercises, gate training, and trial runs on flat ground and slopes were completed well.

Although he doesn't have any particularly outstanding performance, he can quickly remember what he has learned and does not need to go through repeated training like other foals.

It's a very spiritual pony.

This is the feeling that Flax2023 gives people.

Ogawa Masaru believes that apart from his father, no one knows Flax2023 better than him.

Even the clueless older sister who also assisted at the ranch wasn't qualified.

Although he is not yet twenty years old, he has been learning from Xuhe Zhang since he was a child and has quite a bit of experience in similar work.

So, after Kitano asked to observe the training process, he took the initiative to take on the training task.

Mudai Baima did not disappoint him and completed all the tasks easily.

Then, in order to maximize the results of the ranch's training, after discussing with his father, Ogawa Katsu decided to temporarily add a simulated race walking segment.

Although the ranch's runway is a short straight line of only one hundred meters, it is sufficient for simulation practice.

The horse in parallel is another two-year-old horse, and the rider is Kanna Ogawa.

The first eighty meters went very smoothly.

Meda Hirama's ability to adapt to the game is quite good.

It can even be said that it has reached a level that is too excellent.

When he was about to cross the finish line, Mu Baima suddenly moved diagonally in the direction of the parallel horse without any warning.

Then--

He tilted his head and gave the parallel horse a heavy headbutt.

By the time everyone came to their senses, the parallel horses had already staggered and fallen behind by a significant distance.

As a result, Ogawa Kana lost her balance and fell off the horse.

However, the horse in question, Muhei Baima, braved everyone's gaze and crossed the finish line as if nothing had happened.

Ogawa Katsu, who reacted immediately, subconsciously whipped Mudaiba.

He could swear that he didn't use any force when he whipped the horse, and it didn't even touch the horse's body. It just made a loud noise on its ear.

But after this whip, Mudanma suddenly stopped as if he had suffered some injustice, and refused to move no matter how he pulled.

Ogawa Sheng raised his hand, which was clenched around the whip, several times, and then suddenly dropped it as if the strength had been drained away.

Although Dad is responsible for most of the daily training and management, he is also responsible for the heavy physical work such as cleaning the stables and feeding and washing the horses.

In terms of relationship, he is the one closest to Flax2023.

Moreover, the gaze from the horse owner Mr. Kitano behind him made him dare not act rashly.

"You're not going to swing it down?"

Kitano looked at the man and horse fighting in front of him and asked.

"Ah?"

"Only after it realizes that such behavior is wrong will it learn its lesson."

Seeing that Ogawa Masaru was still sitting there stupidly, Kitano continued speaking somewhat helplessly.

Dangerous actions like the one just now must be corrected in time.

Thanks to the protection of the helmet, Kana Ogawa did not suffer much damage except for some scratches.

However, it is hard to say in a formal competition where the situation is more complicated.

Although he hopes his horse will win, he is not yet to the point of using any means necessary.

"I'm causing trouble for you."

When Ogawa Jō and Ogawa Kanna, who had treated her wounds, approached, Kitano bowed to them with a slight apology.

"It's just a minor injury."

Ogawa Kana raised the corners of her mouth slightly and answered calmly.

But it seemed that the wound was involved, and the girl's face began to twist.

"I'm sorry to have made you laugh."

Xuhe Zhang took the whip from his son, lowered his head slightly and said in a deep voice.

"But don't worry, we will definitely train it well before it enters the stable!"

Chapter 7: Entering the Stable and Making a Choice

"What a beautiful horse body!"

Having just met with Kitano's horse owner and the ranch representative, Tanaka couldn't wait to praise them.

This is a lie.

In fact, the two-year-old and two-month-old Medaipei is in the stage of growing up, and his body is covered with dirty-looking gray spots.

Even Kitano, who personally named it "Pegasus", did not think that the gray guy in front of him had any connection with the legendary Pegasus.

Moreover, the body of the horse at this moment is also very ordinary. Although its weight of 467 kg is not thinner than horses of the same age, there is no prominent muscle contour in any part of its body.

As for things like gait, flexibility, or mental attributes, there is no way to talk about them.