A Childish War

"The British 2000 Guineas..."

After pausing for several seconds, Trainer Wada finally nodded as if he had made some sort of decision.

As though to fill the gap left by the shift in atmosphere, Duman Lai Jockey spoke up as well.

"When I used to ride New Universe in training, he felt like a horse that had been modified into a Harley. Sawin, if I had to compare him to something, feels more like a Shinkansen."

A strange silence fell.

Though things had become a little awkward, Duman Lai Jockey continued explaining while making a familiar gesture.

"...Anyway, the fact that he could handle a Timed Workout against a horse of that caliber so comfortably made me feel that his potential is quite extraordinary. Even if his first turf race were an overseas Classic, I think he'd be completely fine."

The horse of "that caliber" Duman Lai Jockey had mentioned, the one that had worked alongside Sawin, was the four-year-old City of All Souls, who was also at Wada Stable.

A week earlier, Trainer Wada had arranged for Sawin, who had yet to make a start at the time, to work alongside his older stablemate City of All Souls. Today, on the day of Sawin's debut, City of All Souls was set to run in the graded Hanshin Cup at the same track later that afternoon, at 3:25.

Since they were not deliberately chasing a fast time, it was an easy workout of roughly five furlongs in sixty-nine seconds. They believed Sawin could handle it even without race experience, so after discussing it, the stable had arranged for the two horses racing that day to work together.

When there was too wide a gap in ability, the horses would often finish far apart. The horse that arrived first might not