That afternoon.
Wearing horse blankets and leg wraps, Gold Ship and Epiphaneia made it to their paddock.
Naturally, someone had already cleared some of the snow from their grazing area, removing the thicker accumulations for the two of them.
The cleared area was only about half its original size, but that was more than enough for them.
Gold Ship was already quite familiar with snow and promptly lay down in it and started rolling around.
Compared to the little time spent playing on the road yesterday, there was naturally much more time to play today.
Step.
I'll keep stepping.
Epiphaneia, meanwhile, started testing it out.
After trying a few steps, Epiphaneia lay down as well.
With their horse blankets on, Koichi wasn't worried about anything going wrong.
It was already the second day of the new year.
The ranch staff had begun returning one after another. Some racehorses would even be heading to the racecourses over the next few days to prepare for their upcoming races. For people working in racing, even a single day off was pretty good.
Their main breaks were still the summer and winter holidays.
Of course, that depended on the horses producing results. If a horse consistently failed to perform, its owner and trainer would waste no time arranging a racing schedule as soon as the season began.
As for Gold Ship and Epiphaneia, neither of them had any reason to rush.
Gold Ship only needed one more win.
The only concerns now were flying and racing in another region. Gold Ship's races as a two-year-old had all been in Hokkaido, while the races as a three-year-old would be at racecourses on the mainland.
Transporting a racehorse took a considerable toll on the horse itself, and there were plenty of things to watch out for.