The Ghost Horse by Joe Layden

Author:Joe Layden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter Nine

OCALA, FLORIDA

JANUARY 8, 2010

At some point in the previous few days he’d already made up his mind. He had two thousand dollars to his name, every wrinkled bill stuffed into his boot to prevent anyone from stealing it, and now he was about to give it up willingly in exchange for a horse of modest pedigree and questionable ability. If anyone had suggested to Tim Snyder that he was out of his mind, they wouldn’t have gotten much of an argument—not even from Snyder himself.

Tim had spent the better part of three years trying to put his life back together, but he had precious little to show for it. He had worked primarily for his buddy John Tebbutt, galloping horses and assisting with training duties at Tebbutt’s barn at Finger Lakes Racetrack, but it was sporadic work made even less lucrative by the fact that Tim would sometimes disappear for days or weeks on end. Whenever he came around, though, there was a job waiting, and that, combined with the fact that he had a roof over his head in Camillus, thanks to the generosity of the Calley family, lent some stability to Tim’s otherwise chaotic life.

Tebbutt had decided in December 2009 that he would spend the winter in Florida, setting up a small operation (approximately a half dozen horses) at a training center in Delray Beach and shipping horses to Gulfstream on race days. He offered Tim a job for the duration.

“John is a friend,” Tim said. “We’ve had our differences over the years, but he’s always had work for me. He’s a good guy. He’d always wanted to spend the winter in Florida, and this seemed like a good time to do it. I was his main man, galloping horses, getting them ready to race. It was an all-day job.”

Tebbutt knew that money was a significant problem for Tim; he also knew that while his friend was a highly competent horseman who would never have trouble getting backstretch work, Tim missed both the excitement and opportunity that came with being an owner. He was fifty-six years old, virtually broke, and had nothing to show for his nearly four decades in the business. He had a home, but no house; he had an empty bank account. His assets, beyond the two grand in cash, were limited to a beat-up station wagon and a feisty little Jack Russell terrier named T-Bone.

“He was in a tough situation,” Tebbutt recalled. “I told him the best way to get out of debt and get a leg up on the whole situation was to get himself a horse, get back in the game, start churning them again.”

It wasn’t like Tim required much in the way of persuasion. He wanted a horse of his own, even if his plan was simply to sell the nag for a small profit shortly after it came into his possession. He and Lisa had made a living doing precisely that; why couldn’t he do it again … on

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