problems.”
“Yes, I understand that,” he said. He braced his shoulders like a marine on parade and ground his fist
into the palm of his other hand.
“We talked to the jockey. .
“Impastato,” Raines said, letting us know he knew his track.
“Right. Impastato got chewed out by Smokey Barton for letting Disaway out at the five-furlong
post—he usually goes at the three-quarter. Anyway, it was Thibideau who told him to run the race
that way.”
“That happens; it?s not uncommon,” Raines said, attempting to be fair.
“No. But it?s usually not done in a race where the horse is favoured and the track is right for him.”
“1 agree,” said Raines, who was turning out to be nobody?s fool, “but it?s not enough to prove the
race was a fix.”
“No, but there?s something else. „The last race Disaway ran, Impastato says the horse was shying to
the left going out of the backstretch. Started running wide.”
“Look, I?m sorry, Callahan,” Raines said impatiently, “but I need to know where you got this thing
about the race being fixed. I can?t go to the stewards and tell them I heard it around the track.”
“You can?t take it to the stewards at all . . . or the Jockey Club,” Callahan said, looking to me for
support.
“And why not?”
“We can?t prove any of it,” I said. “You?re a lawyer. All of this is expert conjecture. You could get
your tail in as big a crack as ours would be.”
“My tail?s already in a crack,” he growled.
Callahan said, “What Jake means is, we can?t prove the horse was burned out so he wouldn?t run well.
We can?t prove Thibideau put the final touch on it by opening him up too early. We can?t even prove
it was Thibideau. Fact is, we can?t even prove for sure the horse has been running with a hairline
crack in his foreleg.”
Raines? anger was turning to frustration.
“Why don?t you just spell it out for me,” he said.
“Okay,” said Callahan. “The way I see it, they couldn?t Bute him on Sunday because there?s a little
kick to Butes; the horse might just have done the job anyway, and he was favoured. The fix was for
Disaway to lose. They had to Bute him today because he was going lame after the workouts, and
today was his day to win. So Disaway ran like a cheetah, couldn?t feel the pain in his foreleg until he
went down. What I think is that Thibideau set up the loss on Sunday. Smokey?s only sin was not
