She is in a dilemma as to where her life is heading. Desperate to make enough money to enter a university and escape a suffocating relationship with her boyfriend, she throws herself headfirst into life at the racetrack. She soon discovers, however, that she is terrified of the high strung animals and even worse, that the other workers have little patience for an inexperienced woman. Even as the high stakes, male-driven world of racing threatens to destroy her and her dreams, Julia perseveres and finds solace in two new friends, who encourage her to fight back. As Julia moves up in the ranks, even her friends are unable to save her from the worst threat of all.
Julia is forced by a man she trusts into a world of deceit and illegal treatment of the very animals she has grown to love, and she may have to sacrifice everything in order to free herself from his grasp-before it is too late.
She is in a dilemma as to where her life is heading. Desperate to make enough money to enter a university and escape a suffocating relationship with her boyfriend, she throws herself headfirst into life at the racetrack. She soon discovers, however, that she is terrified of the high strung animals and even worse, that the other workers have little patience for an inexperienced woman. Even as the high stakes, male-driven world of racing threatens to destroy her and her dreams, Julia perseveres and finds solace in two new friends, who encourage her to fight back. As Julia moves up in the ranks, even her friends are unable to save her from the worst threat of all.
Julia is forced by a man she trusts into a world of deceit and illegal treatment of the very animals she has grown to love, and she may have to sacrifice everything in order to free herself from his grasp-before it is too late.
Paperback
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
She is in a dilemma as to where her life is heading. Desperate to make enough money to enter a university and escape a suffocating relationship with her boyfriend, she throws herself headfirst into life at the racetrack. She soon discovers, however, that she is terrified of the high strung animals and even worse, that the other workers have little patience for an inexperienced woman. Even as the high stakes, male-driven world of racing threatens to destroy her and her dreams, Julia perseveres and finds solace in two new friends, who encourage her to fight back. As Julia moves up in the ranks, even her friends are unable to save her from the worst threat of all.
Julia is forced by a man she trusts into a world of deceit and illegal treatment of the very animals she has grown to love, and she may have to sacrifice everything in order to free herself from his grasp-before it is too late.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781450270090 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | iUniverse, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 12/15/2010 |
| Pages: | 332 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.69(d) |
Read an Excerpt
No Safe Bet
By Gail Sinclair
iUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Gail SinclairAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-7009-0
Chapter One
The air was vibrant with tension. Julia adjusted the tight seatbelt, shifted restlessly in her seat, and glanced apprehensively at her boyfriend Ken. He had made it clear that he wasn't impressed with the early hour. Yet he had insisted that she needed a job. Julia had also wanted a job, but had been procrastinating for weeks. The ultimatum had landed in her lap last night. Financially, Ken was unable to support them both. Get a job or get out. Julia peeked out the window and watched the dark buildings and streets glide by as Ken drove silently. Their recent argument was still ripe in her mind. Ken hardly ever shouted, but he had come close. Julia really did want to get out, to leave him, and perhaps she had given him some indication of this fact. Ultimately, she knew that he would be furious with her plans."Horses!" Ken had fumed. "Why can't you get a real job, like the pizza joint on the corner? Why does it have to start in the middle of the night?" Reluctantly, he had agreed to rise at the ungodly hour.
It really was a glorious morning. The sky was clear with a hint of blue, as the glow of the sun lay just below the horizon. The grass cast long shadows in the still early morning light. Five in the morning was the coolest time of day, and the heat of a typical Toronto August afternoon had not yet warmed the grass, trees, and paved surfaces. The outside air was dry and crackled in anticipation of the rays of scorching sunshine.
Eager to be free of the tension in the vehicle, Julia jumped from the Jeep Cherokee as it rolled to a stop just inside the backstretch gate of Woodbine Racetrack. She glanced at the ominous bulk of the grandstand in the distance, nearly a quarter of a mile away. The slight early morning breeze caressed her brown hair as she pushed a few strands back from her face. Her lips parted in expectant excitement as she glanced at Ken. He nodded at her.
"Shall I leave you here, hon?" he asked carefully.
His words were clipped, anger and disappointment hidden under the endearment. She knew that this change in her life would seriously compromise their life together. This was a good thing.
"I'll be fine." The off-hand reply escaped her as she surveyed the backstretch in the gathering light. "I'll call if I need you." Hoping to relieve some of the stress of their drive, Julia smiled at him with a warm glow in her soft brown eyes. "Thanks for the ride."
The man reluctantly put the Jeep in reverse and waved. The dust gathered as he turned and left.
Friends at the stable where Julia rode had warned her about what to expect; yet she still felt eagerness and some trepidation about a morning of new experiences. Her friends had also given her a rundown of a typical early morning at the racetrack.
Work in most barns on the backstretch started at 6 a.m. and 5.30 a.m. in some of the bigger establishments. A steady flow of vehicles arrived and moved through the gate toward the barns 300 yards down the road. The security guard in the booth simply waved most trucks and cars through the gate. The workers called their morning greetings over steaming cups of Tim Horton's coffee.
Julia stared at the stream of workers heading towards the barns for morning training. They added to the aura of a country atmosphere in the midst of a metropolitan city that bustled and buzzed with vigour around them. The tall and lean ones were the grooms and hot-walkers, her friends had said, and the short and compact ones were the exercise riders. All appeared muscled and incredibly fit to work with the high-energy racehorses. Julia was in awe.
"Something you want, Miss?" a voice asked gruffly behind her.
She wheeled around towards the man in the security uniform. He had just come out of the security trailer, a mobile home permanently set by the roadway leading toward the gate.
"I'm here to meet with Roger Dongals, the personnel manager."
The guard nodded to a trailer at the far end of the parking area beside the gate. It appeared closed, locked, and deserted. "That there is Dongals' trailer. Should be here 'bout five minutes from now."
Julia nodded her thanks and wandered slowly toward the trailer. Much smaller than the security trailer, this off-white trailer was only about 15 feet long. The entrance door was padlocked and set in the centre of the trailer in the long shadows cast by the rising sun. Unlike the busy gate only a few feet away, this quiet corner of the parking lot was devoid of people and activity. Julia sat on the concrete slab that fashioned a step to enter the trailer. She gazed longingly toward the barns, which were just beginning to bustle with activity.
Julia let her mind wander back to the last couple of weeks. Finished with Grade 13, Julia had been unable to decide exactly where her life was heading. Ken had been pushing her to find employment to help pay the bills, but Julia desperately wanted a job to make enough money to enter university, and escape Toronto and the suffocating relationship with her boyfriend. They had been together for nearly four years, and, at the age of 19, Julia felt that it had been a lifetime. Ken had been kind to her and she had been eager to move in with him last year, but she now wanted to experience life beyond the four walls of their tiny Etobicoke apartment.
During the last few weeks Julia had learned to ride a horse at a local stable. Enthralled with the country atmosphere surrounding the stable, Julia had begged them for employment that was different from the usual teenage summer jobs. Financially unable to grant her wish, the owners had suggested that she talk to Roger Dongals at the racetrack if she was that keen to work with horses.
So here she was, leaning back against the cold metal of the trailer, gazing out over the early morning grass. Although she didn't have a clear idea of her future or her long-term goals, Julia knew that she craved excitement and the unknown. Her dark brown eyes gazed toward the sun creeping over the horizon. Sometimes she felt old beyond her years; the long-term relationship with Ken had protected her from the harsh realities of life. Things had been comfortable. Her parents had moved north last year, and Julia had moved in with Ken. Disappointment had ultimately surfaced, as the mundane day-to-day reality of life had forced Julia to think seriously about her decision. Similar to other teens fresh from high school, she was naive in her romantic outlook on life. What had happened to the spark, the fire, the always wanting to be together?
A small brown Mazda drove into the parking lot and stopped beside the trailer. Coffee in hand, a plump man in his 60s opened the car door and stepped out. Slamming the door, he reached in through the open window to retrieve a dog-eared leather folder. With keys dangling below the folder, the man strode over to the trailer, nodded to Julia, and unlocked the padlock on the trailer door.
"Good morning," he said, smiling.
Julia moved off the cement step to allow Dongals to pass into the trailer. He dropped his folder onto a small metal desk across from the door, and coffee still in hand, turned to face Julia.
"May I come in ... sir?" Julia asked, forcing a smile.
"Of course, my dear. Don't be shy." Dongals leaned back against his desk. "Your name?"
"Julia Reinhardt."
She stepped into the trailer and gazed around. Dark and dusty, the tiny trailer held just a small metal desk cluttered with papers and a couple of folding chairs. The only light was cast through the open door and a single small window in the opposite wall. Roger Dongals wore a plaid blue shirt pulled out over an old pair of jeans. His gruff appearance belied his personality. Beneath his thinning hairline, his blue eyes twinkled. Julia's taut nerves began to unknot. He held out a hand.
"Roger Dongals," he said as she shook his hand. "We're waiting for another girl who's also looking for work. It may be a couple of minutes before I take you back to the barns. Have a seat. I need to get my cart." He stepped out of the trailer and disappeared.
Julia felt very awkward. She sat on a metal chair and gazed around her at the rough surroundings. The racetrack was very different from what she had expected. Her limited impressions were based solely on Hollywood's version of the track, the occasional glimpses of a glorious Kentucky Derby run in May, and the few comments from her friends at the riding stable. The clutter and darkness of the personnel manager's trailer gave a hint of the unknown waters into which she was about to plunge. Although normally a determined, headstrong teenager, right now Julia felt nervous about the unknown. In fact, until just recently, she had nursed a healthy fear of horses—not the best fright to have in this particular line of work!
Julia shook her head to clear it of the negative thoughts. She wanted a job and she wanted out of the relationship with Ken. She had to focus on those things to be a success.
Hearing Dongals outside talking to someone, Julia moved to the door of the trailer. Roger was talking to another girl not much older than herself.
"Julia, climb aboard my cart." He gestured toward the other girl. "This is Kim, who is also looking for work."
Roger Dongals climbed into the driver's seat of the electric golf cart and, with Julia and Kim on board, set out for the security gate. He handed each of the girls a security visitor's pass to wear on their shirts, and the guard at the gate waved them through.
Their route took them down a gravel road flanked by fields towards the white barns in the distance. These barns were essentially shedrows, her friends had told her, stalls set back-to-back in long rows of whitewashed cement block foundations. The wooden roofs peaked in the centre of the shed and stretched down across an aisle in front of the stalls. Most of the sheds were enclosed with a three-foot wall surrounding the entire barn. The barns themselves were built in an "H" shape, with two shedrows of about a hundred stalls all together connected by an intervening section of building which had several doors set into the cement wall. Each barn was numbered at the end in large black paint easily visible against the whitewash. Dongals drove by the first few barns, waving and shouting morning greetings to many of the workers and trainers who were busily scrubbing buckets, sorting bridles, and feeding horses.
"We'll try you with Henderson, Julia," he called over his shoulder. "He's been looking for a new hot-walker, and his assistant trainer Lorraine is used to green help. They are a small stable, and you may find it easy to fit in with them."
Julia nodded quietly. She was completely in awe of her surroundings. She could not believe how huge the backstretch was. She began to realize just how many people were employed to care for the thousands of horses stabled here. Because she knew so little about racing and horses in general, many questions crowded her mind. She wasn't even sure what Dongals meant by the term "hot-walker," and assumed that "green help" referred to inexperienced workers.
"Kim, you've got a little more experience. I think we'll try you with Carlson. They're looking for a groom."
After passing several barns, Roger Dongals pulled up to a centre section of Barn 8 and gestured for Julia to exit. He wandered over to a blonde girl leaning against the entrance. Julia stood beside the cart and strained to see into the dark stalls. Many of the horses were munching their early morning meal, but an occasional animal gazed across the bottom door of its stall at the early morning excitement of the racetrack. Ears were pricked forward as if anticipating when they would be allowed to escape their confines to train, bathe, and feel the morning sunshine on their backs. And what lovely specimens of horseflesh these racehorses were! Julia had been riding a thoroughbred horse at her riding school recently, but the riding school horses were not these shiny, sleek creatures! Just the thought of these lively fresh young horses began to bring back the healthy fear that she had thought she had buried.
Roger Dongals was signalling for her to move towards them. He introduced her to Lorraine, who simply glanced at her clothing and footwear and nodded.
"Good luck to you, Julia. I'll be seeing you around." Dongals gave a parting wave and mounted his cart to take Kim to another barn.
Julia felt a moment of insecurity and loneliness as the only two people she even knew slightly were driving away. Yet the moment passed quickly as Lorraine started giving orders.
"Jim isn't here yet, but you'll meet him when he gets here around six. Any experience with horses?" she asked.
"Not much," Julia replied truthfully. "I ride at a local stable."
"You'll learn quick enough at the track." Lorraine nodded toward buckets sitting in the cement ditch in front of the barn. "You can start by scrubbing those water buckets. I'll get you to walk a cold one in a moment." With scarcely another glance at Julia, she walked into the shed.
Julia picked up the scrub brush and glanced around at the barns. It seemed relatively quiet in this area, yet she could hear sounds of activity. The morning was still and calm with the sun quickly warming the quiet air. Chattering birds flew through the shed. A horse and rider came down the road between the barns, the rider holding the horse closely on the bit as it pranced along the road. Used to riding-school horses, Julia noticed that this particular mount was moving down the road sideways more than straight ahead. She wondered how it was possible to control such high-spirited horses. Yet the rider did not seem to be bothered by the antics going on beneath him. He raised his whip in greeting to Julia as he spotted her closely watching him.
"Julia."
Startled, Julia jumped up at the sound of Lorraine's voice behind her. Lorraine stood in the shed beside a tall grey horse. She handed the end of the lead shank to Julia.
"You can walk this horse," she said.
Julia moved forward to take the lead from Lorraine. The lead was soft leather with a chain portion wrapped around the horse's nose. Her mind barely registered Lorraine's instructions as she stared at the young grey filly. Lorraine stooped to undo the bandages wrapped around the filly's front legs.
"You can walk the full length of the shed or if you are needed when a hot one comes in, take a half turn. Make sure you stop if you hear the words, "Hold up; coming through." Call that out when you take a half turn. Watch the horses down the shed. They have some biters and will nail you when you're not looking. What's the matter?" Lorraine sounded irritated as she glanced at Julia.
"I ... uh ..." Julia wasn't exactly sure what was the matter, except that everything was happening very fast and she wasn't sure if she'd made the right decision. However, she was here and it was employment, so ... "Nothing."
"Walk her for 40 minutes unless a hot one comes in. I'll be busy tacking. The water bucket is across from the stall—number 37." Lorraine pointed to a bucket hanging against the shed. She turned and shouted a greeting to another woman walking down the road toward the shed.
Julia felt dismissed. Glancing once more at the horse standing beside her, she dropped back to the left side of the animal and started forward. Julia was not walking the horse. The horse was walking her! It didn't take her or the animal very long to figure that out. The young filly, eager to be out of the confines of her stall prison, was stepping right out. The lead shank tightened in Julia's hand, dragging her along so that she practically had to run to keep up. She scarcely had time to think about calling out any intention as the filly took a quick turn to the left and plunged through the middle of the shed. While the horse pulled Julia down the other side of the shedrow, she could hear the chuckles emanating from other grooms and hot-walkers.
"Henderson's got himself a new girl. Wonder how this one will do?"
"Make sure you call when you go through the centre, missy."
"You could slow that filly down, you know. She's been laid up a while."
Embarrassed that she had no control over the horse and no response to their comments, Julia quietly struggled to keep up with the grey horse. But that appeared to be the least of her concerns. Apparently word had travelled fast in the horse world that she was "green" and didn't really know what she was doing. Horses within the stalls lunged out at the filly as they passed closely, nipping her on her flank. The filly, in her defiance, would kick out at the guilty parties. Julia found herself ducking teeth and attempting to avoid the cow-kicking filly. By the time she was back in front of the home stalls, where Lorraine was chatting to a couple of other workers, she knew that she was going to need some instruction if she was to have any control over these high-spirited horses. The filly, knowing exactly her own water bucket, dragged Julia to the other side of the shed for a long drink.
"Mind she doesn't drink too much at one time," the girl next to Lorraine called out. "Watch her throat as she swallows and only allow seven to eight gulps every second full turn."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from No Safe Bet by Gail Sinclair Copyright © 2010 by Gail Sinclair. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.