Photo Finish

by Bonnie Bryant

  Carole nodded. She had liked Mr. McLeod very much when she met him, but she also remembered how concerned he was with making money. It had made her realize that racing was a business, and she wasn’t sure she liked that. She liked to think of riding as something to be done for fun, not for profit.

  “Ready to go?” Judy asked Max and Deborah.

  “Just about,” Max said. “You two go ahead, and I’ll meet you at the truck in a minute. I just have to tell my mother something first.” Max’s mother, known to all the riders as Mrs. Reg, helped run Pine Hollow.

  As the three adults left, Stevie leaned on Belle’s saddle and frowned. “It doesn’t seem fair that Max gets to have a great time going to the Preakness while we get stuck here doing all his chores,” she commented grumpily.

  But Carole and Lisa weren’t really listening. They were too excited at the thought that someone they knew had a horse competing in the Triple Crown.

  “I hope Monkeyshines wins,” Lisa said, slinging her camera over her neck and opening the gate.

  “Me too,” Carole agreed, heading through the gate with Starlight. “Although it would also be exciting if Garamond won all three races.”

  “Let’s all get together at one of our houses and watch the race on TV next week,” Lisa suggested. “I’m sure we’ll be finished here in plenty of time, no matter what Max says.”

  “We can do it at my house if you want,” Carole said. “My dad has to be at the base all day Saturday, so we’ll have the place to ourselves. We can make popcorn and stuff and have a little party.”

  “Sounds great,” Lisa said. She shook her head. “Just think how exciting it would be to see such a big race in person. Max is lucky.”

  “Exactly what I was thinking,” Stevie put in. “And if you ask me, next Saturday should be our lucky day too.”

  “What do you mean?” Carole asked.

  Stevie gave her friends a mysterious smile. “The Preakness is held in Baltimore, right?”

  “Right,” Carole confirmed.

  “So why shouldn’t we get to go too?” Stevie said. “I mean, Baltimore is practically right in our backyard.”

  “Well, not quite,” Lisa said. “But it is pretty close.”

  “But you’re forgetting one thing here, Stevie,” Carole reminded her. “None of us can drive, remember? How are you planning to get there—on horseback?”

  Stevie rolled her eyes. “Very funny. I was thinking that one of our parents could drive us, of course.”

  Carole was already shaking her head. “I just told you. My dad has to work all day next Saturday.” Carole’s father was a colonel in the United States Marine Corps. Her mother had died when Carole was eleven.

  Stevie turned to Lisa. “How about your parents?”

  “No good,” Lisa said. “My aunt Maude is coming to town, and they promised to take her down to Colonial Williamsburg. They’re leaving on Friday night—that’s why I’m spending the night at your house, remember?” The girls had already planned a sleepover at the Lakes’ house on the following Friday.

  “How about your parents, Stevie?” Carole said. “Your dad was the one who took you and Lisa to the track last time.”

  Stevie looked glum. “No luck there,” she admitted. “Both my parents are going to a wedding on Saturday afternoon.” She threw up her hands in frustration. “There’s got to be a way to get there,” she cried. “Otherwise we’re going to be stuck here mucking out stalls while Max and the others are off having the time of their lives at the Preakness. It’s not fair. We’ve got to think of a plan.”

  The girls were still thinking furiously a few minutes later as they carried their saddles into the tack room. As they started soaping them, Mrs. Reg stuck her head out of her office. “Ah, there you are, girls,” she said. “When you’re finished with that, I wonder if you could help me out for a few minutes. There are some stalls that need mucking out, and Red just hasn’t been able to get to them.”

  The Saddle Club exchanged glances. “Sure, Mrs. Reg,” they answered in one voice.

  When Mrs. Reg disappeared back into her office, Stevie added in a whisper, “We might as well get used to it.”

  AS LISA TRUDGED home an hour later, her back aching as a result of her hard work with a pitchfork, she was thinking about what Stevie had said. But she wasn’t feeling very optimistic about the chances of The Saddle Club’s seeing the Preakness in person. They had no one to drive them and no money to pay for train tickets. Besides, Lisa wasn’t sure her parents would let her go without adult supervision even if she had a way to get there.

  When she arrived at her house, she went straight into the dining room, where her mother was setting the table. “Oh, there you are, dear,” Mrs. Atwood said. “Hurry up and get changed. Dinner’s almost ready, and your father and I have something important to discuss with you.”

  “What is it?” Lisa asked, setting her camera carefully on the sideboard.

  “Just go ahead and change first,” Mrs. Atwood said. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk at dinner.”

  Feeling puzzled, Lisa did as she was told. It wasn’t like her mother to be so mysterious. Mrs. Atwood hadn’t seemed angry or upset, so that meant the news had to be something good. But what? When Lisa came back downstairs a few minutes later, both her parents were seated at the table waiting for her. “What did you want to talk to me about?” Lisa asked as she took her seat.

  Her mother and father glanced at each other. Then Mr. Atwood spoke. “We just had an interesting phone call.…”

  MEANWHILE, AT THE Hansons’ house, Carole had just come downstairs after a quick shower and found her father in the kitchen chopping carrots for a salad. She joined him at the counter and began shredding a head of lettuce into a large bowl.

  “Thanks, sweetheart,” Colonel Hanson said. “You’re always such a help in the kitchen. I probably don’t tell you that often enough, do I? But it’s true.”

  “That’s all right, Dad,” Carole replied with a shrug. “I like to help.” She grinned. “Besides, the sooner this is done, the sooner we can eat. And I’m starved.”

  “Still, though, I can’t help thinking that, as a good marine, I should remember the reward-and-punishment system we have in the Corps. It’s always seemed to work pretty well in my experience—especially the reward part. And I can’t help thinking that sometimes a person deserves a reward just for being herself—oh, and for helping around the kitchen and that sort of thing, of course.”

  “What are you talking about?” Carole asked, heading for the refrigerator to get out the salad dressing. “Are you planning to give me a reward or something?” She turned from the refrigerator to see her father grinning at her.

  “You might say that,” Colonel Hanson replied.

  “YOU MEAN I’M going to the Preakness?” Stevie was shrieking at that very moment.

  “Ow, you just punctured my eardrums with your squealing,” complained Stevie’s older brother, Chad.

  But Stevie wasn’t paying any attention to him. “What did Judy say?” she asked her parents excitedly.

  “Well, if you’d give us a chance to explain, we’ll tell you the whole story,” Mrs. Lake said, smiling at her excited daughter. “It seems that that stable owner, Mr. McLeod, has rented Judy a suite for the weekend at a hotel in Baltimore. Since her husband isn’t going, poor Judy was afraid she’d be lonely. So she invited you girls along to keep her company.”

  “And Carole’s dad and Lisa’s parents are letting them go too?” Stevie asked.

  Mrs. Lake nodded. “They are. We were the last ones Judy called. Everything’s all settled.”

  “Hah! This will show old Max a thing or two,” Stevie couldn’t help gloating. “He thinks he’s so great just because he gets to go. Wait until he hears about this!”

  Mr. and Mrs. Lake traded a glance. Mr. Lake cleared his throat. “Er, Stevie—I don’t know how to break this to you, but apparently this whole plan was Max’s idea. He even asked his mother to keep you girls at
the stable for a few extra minutes today so he and Judy would have a chance to contact us and get everything settled before you girls got home.”

  Stevie’s eyes widened. “Really? That—that rat!” she sputtered. “The way he pretended he was off to have this great time while we were stuck here, slaving away the whole weekend!” She broke into a wide grin. “I have to hand it to him. He was brilliant!”

  The rest of the family exchanged amused glances. Coming from Stevie, a renowned schemer, that was high praise indeed.

  She jumped out of her chair. “Hey, where are you going?” Stevie’s twin brother, Alex, asked with his mouth full of peas.

  “I’ve got to call Judy and thank her,” Stevie explained, heading for the phone. “Then I have to call Carole and Lisa.”

  “Go ahead and call Judy if you want to, Stevie,” Mrs. Lake said. “But I think Carole and Lisa can wait until after dinner.”

  “But, Mom—” Stevie began to say. But when she saw the expression on her parents’ faces, she decided not to argue.

  AFTER DINNER STEVIE, Lisa, and Carole discussed the exciting news on a three-way phone call.

  “It’s going to be so great,” Carole said dreamily. “It was exciting enough being at a small racetrack on a normal day. Just imagine, we’ll be at one of the most important tracks in the country on one of the most important days of the year. Think of the fantastic Thoroughbreds we’ll get to see!”

  “I know,” Lisa agreed. “I can’t wait. It’ll be a great chance for me to take some pictures of something new. I’m sure I can get lots of good action shots.”

  “Uh-huh,” Stevie said, even though she had a feeling that photography was going to be the last thing on her mind the following Saturday. There would be so many more exciting things to think about. “How many races are there going to be before the Preakness?”

  “I’m not sure,” Carole said. “But I do know that Mr. McLeod has another horse running in one of the earlier races. It’s Hold Fast—the stallion we were talking about earlier, remember?”

  “Max will be able to tell us all about it on the way there,” Stevie said. “I still can’t believe the way he tricked us into thinking he was going and we weren’t!”

  “Didn’t he do that to us once before?” Lisa said. “Remember the American Horse Show?” Once, without saying a thing to them about it beforehand, Max had called the girls’ parents to ask if they could come to New York City with him for one of the most famous horse shows in the world. Their parents had said yes that time too.

  “Well, I for one am willing to forgive him,” Carole declared. “Especially since he volunteered to pick us all up on Friday and drive us to Baltimore. Boy, this sure beats staying home and mucking out stalls!”

  Lisa and Stevie couldn’t help agreeing with that.

  “WHERE ARE THEY, where are they, where are they, where are they,” Stevie muttered, peering up the empty road. She was standing in front of her school, Fenton Hall, on Friday afternoon. Classes had just ended for the week, and Max was due at any moment to pick up Stevie for the trip to Baltimore. But first he had to pick up Carole and Lisa at the public middle school on the other side of town.

  Just when Stevie thought she couldn’t possibly wait another second, she finally spotted Max’s familiar station wagon coming up the road toward her.

  “All aboard for Baltimore!” Max called out through the open window as he pulled the car to a stop in front of Stevie.

  “Finally!” Stevie exclaimed as she climbed into the backseat beside Lisa and tossed her duffel bag over the seat behind her. “I thought you’d never get here.”

  “Well, we did get a little sidetracked …” Carole began to say.

  “It’s my fault,” Lisa admitted.

  Stevie noticed the large pile of camera equipment on the seat beside Lisa. Besides the camera itself, there were several lenses of varying sizes, a complicated-looking flash attachment, a small collapsible tripod, several other unrecognizable attachments, half a dozen rolls of film, a small spiral-bound notebook and pen, and a booklet called Focus and You.

  “What’s all that stuff for?” Stevie asked.

  “I told you,” Lisa replied. “This trip is the perfect chance to try out my camera in different kinds of situations. I just wanted to be prepared.”

  “That’s why we had to stop at the drugstore so Lisa could buy four more rolls of film,” Max said. “She was afraid she’d run out at a crucial moment.”

  “Hey, you never know,” Lisa said with a smile. She began carefully repacking the equipment into her brown leather camera bag. When Lisa liked to do something, she liked to do it well, and she was willing to work hard at it. That was why she was a straight-A student, it was why she had become a good rider relatively quickly once she’d started, and it was why she was so eager to practice her photography now. And just as in riding, having the proper equipment was important to taking good pictures.

  As Max drove out of town and merged onto the interstate, the girls settled back to enjoy the trip. Carole watched the trees flash by along the side of the road, thinking about Deborah’s assignment. “Hey, Max,” she said. “Do you think Deborah is really nervous about doing this story?”

  “She has reason to be,” Max replied. “It’s a big story, and if she does well, it could mean a lot more racetrack assignments in the future. I think she’d really like that. But as she mentioned to you the other day, she’s having some credibility problems with some of the established track reporters.”

  “Credibility?” Stevie repeated. “You mean they don’t think she’s a good enough reporter?”

  Max shrugged. “How good a reporter she is doesn’t really seem to matter to them. What matters is that she’s relatively inexperienced with the racing world. And racing really is its own world in some ways. Some of the reporters—especially those who’ve been at the track for their whole careers—are probably pretty annoyed that someone new to it has been assigned a major story like the Triple Crown.”

  “That’s terrible,” Carole said. “They should at least give her a chance.”

  “Actually, most of them are doing just that,” Max said. “They’re not helping her any, but they’re not getting in her way either. Although one or two of them—especially Kent Calhoun from the Racing Times—are doing their best to make her feel like an outsider.”

  “That’s mean,” Lisa commented.

  “I agree,” Max said. “It’s too bad some people can’t stand a little healthy competition.”

  “Speaking of competition,” Carole said, “can you tell us a little about the race? I read about it when I was studying up on racing a while ago, but I don’t really remember much.”

  “Sure,” Max said. “First of all, the Preakness is the second of the three Triple Crown races.”

  “The Kentucky Derby is first and the Belmont Stakes is third, right?” Lisa volunteered. Carole had been lecturing her friends all week on everything she knew about racing, including that fact. She loved sharing her knowledge about horses almost as much as she loved acquiring it.

  “Right,” Max said. “The Preakness is the shortest of the three at a mile and an eighth, so it’s important for the horses in it to be good sprinters. However, they also have to have serious stamina to run the longer distances in the Derby—a mile and a quarter—and the Belmont—a mile and a half, which is a really long distance for a horse to run at top speed.”

  “Why are these three races so important anyway?” Stevie asked.

  “I guess it’s mostly the history,” Max said. “All three races have been run for well over one hundred years. The first Preakness, for example, was run in 1870.”

  “Wow!” Stevie said with a low whistle. “That is history!”

  “And, of course, there’s the money,” Max continued.

  “I knew it,” Carole said. She still found the whole idea of horses as big business a little disconcerting.

  Max chuckled. “I know it can seem like big business a lot of the tim
e,” he said. “But it’s also a sport that a lot of people love for other reasons, and it has a long and noble history in this country and all over the world. That’s why they call it the Sport of Kings.”

  “So how much money does the winner of the Preakness get?” Stevie asked.

  “Well, I’m not sure exactly,” Max admitted. “But I think it’s several hundred thousand dollars. Plus there’s a big bonus, something like a million dollars, for any horse that wins all three races in the Triple Crown.”

  The girls gasped. “No wonder people think these races are important,” Lisa said.

  Max nodded. “And besides the obvious and immediate value of the purse—that’s what the money that goes to the winners is called—there’s the added value that the horse gains by winning such a prestigious race.”

  “You mean a horse that wins even one Triple Crown race is worth a lot more money?” Carole asked.

  “Right,” Max confirmed. “And when that horse retires, his or her foals are automatically worth more.”

  Carole grinned at Max. “I don’t know what Deborah needed Judy for,” she said. “It sounds to me like you know an awful lot about racing!”

  “I’m not quite as ignorant about it as Deborah may have led you to believe,” Max said with a smile. “But still, there’s an awful lot to know, and Judy does know a lot more about most of it than I do. She worked at a racetrack full-time for a few years before setting up her practice in Willow Creek, so she knows more of the real ins and outs of racing.”

  “Well, it all sounds pretty complicated to me, especially the money part,” Stevie said, leaning back and closing her eyes. “I just got out of math class, and I don’t want to think about numbers anymore. Let’s stop talking about money and get back to talking about the most important part of the race—the horses.”

  Laughing, the others agreed wholeheartedly.

  LESS THAN TWO hours later, Max was pulling up in front of a high-rise hotel in downtown Baltimore.

  “You girls wait in the car a minute while I go check on your room number,” he said.