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The last Saturday of August.
Hokkaido's weather had already begun to feel chilly now and then, yet the heat on Honshu showed no sign of fading.
Tomorrow was the final day of summer racing, and also the day Dawn would make his debut.
They said children grew up watching their parents' backs. Dawn had arrived early to get used to his surroundings before the race, and his breeder had come to Honshu today as well. From that angle, it was hard to say who had followed whom.
Wiping the sweat from my face, I walked alongside Uchida through the heat of the sun overhead.
Come to think of it, the weather hadn't cooled down at all today.
"Still summer, isn't it?" "It's already autumn, though."
The two of us, who had been walking slightly out of step, slowed down at the same time.
"You mean the temperature, President Kitano?"
"Yes. Besides, summer racing isn't over yet."
"That's true, but autumn racing has already started."
Dawn would make his debut tomorrow, with Kazuo, who had ridden him many times since he entered Tracen, in the saddle.
That led Uchida to tell me quite a few stories about Dawn's time at the stable.
On the day of his first hill training session, Uchida had given mischievous little Dawn the riding crop from his days as a Jockey. I still remember it clearly.
But when Uchida returned to the stable the next morning, the sight that greeted him took him by surprise.
"At some point, the crop had been snapped clean in two. It was just lying there on the ground."
Uchida shook his head with a laugh. "That was when I knew we had a little troublemaker on our hands."
Not long after that, Uchida personally rode him