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action.”
    The girls continued to lean on the rail as the big coltand his two companions headed down the track at a walk. When they were halfway around, the riders turned the horses and began to trot, then canter. Finally, the three racers moved into a gallop.
    Carole held her breath as the horses raced. Monkeyshines had seemed fast when running alone, but Garamond was equally impressive running in company. He quickly outdistanced his two rivals and swept over the finish line well in the lead. When his rider pulled him up, Carole could see that the big colt was hardly winded, and she guessed that he hadn’t been running at his full speed. She couldn’t hear what Garamond’s trainer said to the jockey as he clipped a lead rope onto the colt’s bridle, but he was smiling.
    “He’s going to be hard to beat too,” she said.
    Her friends nodded.
    “But Monk can do it,” Stevie said confidently. “After all, with The Saddle Club on his side, how can he lose?”
    Carole and Lisa couldn’t argue with that. They turned around and noticed Mr. McLeod and his trainer approaching the track, leading the gelding Chestnut Cal and another horse. The girls waved to them, then strolled off through the stable area, watching the hustle and bustle that was still going on all around them. When they reached the Maskee Farms stable, though, it was quiet.
    “I guess the whole gang is at the track, watching the other horses,” Carole commented.
    It seemed to be true—there were no people in sight. In fact, the first creature the girls encountered, just outside the entrance, was Blackie the goat. He wandered over to them, chewing busily on a rag he’d obviously stolen from someone’s grooming bucket.
    “Oh, Blackie!” Lisa cried. “I promised I’d take your picture, didn’t I?” She removed the lens cap from her camera and started to focus.
    Carole and Stevie let out loud mock sighs. “Well, there goes the rest of the morning,” Stevie commented jokingly.
    “Very funny,” Lisa said. “Just hold on a second. I’ve almost got him in focus.” She moved forward a few steps, stumbling over a small rock that had somehow made its way onto the otherwise clean path.
    Carole hurried forward and picked up the rock, tossing it into a nearby trash bin. “I wouldn’t want that to get stuck in someone’s hoof,” she said.
    “Like mine?” Lisa teased.
    “Oh, come on,” Stevie teased back. “If you’re going to be an ace photographer, you’re going to have to deal with bigger hardships than that little stone.”
    “True,” Carole agreed, with a grin. “Like getting your subjects in focus before they fall asleep.”
    Carole and Stevie continued to trade jokes about Lisa’s photography habit for a few moments while Lisa tried hard to ignore them and concentrate on getting the fast-moving little goat into focus.
    “There!” she cried at last with satisfaction. “That was it! The perfect shot!”
    “Finally,” Stevie said. “Now can we go inside and say hello to Monk?”
    The Saddle Club hurried through the open doorway and made their way toward Monkeyshines’s stall at the end of the row. Halfway there, they noticed Hold Fast peering out at them over the half-door of his stall.
    “Oh, hi there, Stretch!” Carole said, remembering the stallion’s stable name. She paused to watch him for a few minutes, and her friends stopped with her. Blackie wandered away.
    “He looks ready to race too, doesn’t he?” Stevie commented. “Don’t worry, Stretch, we won’t forget about you just because you’re not in the Preakness. We’ll still cheer you on.”
    The Saddle Club turned and started toward Monkeyshines’s stall again. But before they’d taken more than a few steps, they saw Blackie trotting toward them from the end of the row.
    “Look, he found something else to chew on,” Lisa commented. “It looks like hay. He must have snitched some from Monk.”
    Carole watched the goat for a moment. “It doesn’t look like