"I don't know how they pry it all loose from him, but one mawnin' ole
man Sanford wakes up clean as a whistle. They've copped the whole
works--he ain't got nothin'. So he goes to keepin' books fur a whisky
house in Loueyville, 'n' he holds the job down steady fur twenty years.
The only time he quits pen-pushin' is when they race at Churchill
Downs. From the first minute the meetin' opens till get-away day comes
he's bright eyes at the rat hole. He don't add up no figgers fur
nobody then. He just putters around the track. He's doped out as
sort-a harmless by the bunch.
"After the Tres Jolie mare wins the derby fur me, ole man Sanford makes
my stalls his hang-out. I ain't kickin', all he wants to do is to look
at the mare 'n' chew the rag about her. That satisfies him completely.
"'Of all the hosses, suh, who have been a glory to our state,' he says,
'but one otheh had as game a heart as this superb creature. I refer to
Sweet Alice, suh--a race mayah of such quality that the world marveled.
Not in a boastful manner, suh, but with propah humility, let me say
that I had the honor to breed and raise Sweet Alice, and that she bore
my colors when she won the tenth renewal of our great classic.'
"He tells this to everybody that comes past the stalls, 'n' it ain't
long till he begins to bring people around to look the mare over. From
that he gets to watchin' how the swipes take care of her. Pretty soon
he begins to call 'em if things ain't done to suit him.
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