A few days later.
That afternoon, in Tokyo.
"Koichi, welcome back."
Hitachi Yosuke pulled his friend straight into a hug.
While Koichi had been away, Golden Masterpiece had been an absolute nightmare to look after.
Fortunately, he had made it through.
"Where's the new exercise rider?"
Koichi looked around but saw no sign of the exercise rider from Aoe Ranch.
Did these people all leave so quickly?
"Asho ran him ragged. As soon as he heard you were coming back, he bought his own plane ticket and flew back to Hokkaido."
Hitachi Yosuke curled his lip.
A rookie was a rookie, after all.
The exercise rider had naturally reported it to the higher-ups too, so there was little Yosuke could say. Fortunately, thanks to their efforts, Golden Masterpiece's training hadn't been neglected during that time.
Now that Koichi was back, he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Lately, he had felt that Golden Masterpiece's condition had noticeably declined.
"I see... Then I'll take over tomorrow."
Koichi said.
He hadn't expected so much to happen while he was away.
Once he took Golden Masterpiece out for a ride tomorrow, he would be able to tell exactly what condition the horse was in.
"Has Golden Masterpiece's appetite been all right lately? Anything else wrong?"
"No problems on those fronts. Apart from not being very willing to cooperate with training lately, everything else has been normal. There have been a few minor issues with the legs, but nothing serious."
In fact, Golden Masterpiece had even put on quite a bit of weight lately.
"Good. We've still got plenty of time to make adjustments."
Koichi was pleased with that.
Yosuke really did know his stuff.
With a groom like him around, Koichi could take Gold Ship elsewhere to race without worrying.
"Oh, right.