By the time Koichi finished showering at the hotel, news about him and Golden Masterpiece was already trending.
Ayano Aoe had, naturally, invited him to dinner again that evening, and this time she had chosen a Japanese restaurant.
Tomorrow, he would stop by the stables to check on Golden Masterpiece, then take an afternoon flight back to Hokkaido.
Now that the race was over, there was nothing else for him to do in Tokyo.
Then he received a message from the Assistant.
One matter concerned his earlier prize money; the other was the video of his previous interview.
Now that he and Golden Masterpiece were trending after winning the Tokyo Yushun together, the person who had originally been reluctant to interview him was rushing to edit the video.
How could anyone pass up a chance to ride that wave of attention!
The uploader who had been somewhat unwilling before now wished he could publish the video immediately.
Assistant: Get some proper rest. Thank you for all your hard work today.
Koichi: No problem.
Assistant: Someone will come pick you up when it's about time.
Koichi's work was done, but hers was far from over.
She had to arrange the schedules for the young lady, Golden Masterpiece, and the ranch staff.
She even had to book the restaurant for tonight.
After finishing his conversation with the Assistant, Koichi took out his phone and continued replying to messages.
There were considerably more messages this time than last time.
After all, he had added quite a few contacts lately. Some were jockeys and some were exercise riders, but trainers were still the smallest group.
He now had a circle of his own.
He was no longer unfamiliar with everyone in the racing world as he had been before.
Kenichi Ikezoe and Ryuji Wada