Moving inside the stall with him, Alec ran his hands down the long neck. “We’re going out,” he said. “And you’ve got to take it easy out there, Black. You’ve got to … or we go home.”

Henry handed Alec the saddle, which the boy put on the Black. The stallion moved uneasily when Alec tightened the girth; then the boy took the bridle from Henry and slipped it over the stallion’s head.

“He knows what’s up, all right,” Alec told Henry.

The Black pushed heavily against the door, his ears pricked and eyes gleaming. Kashmir went up the row toward the track, and the Black’s gaze followed him as he screamed his challenge at the sorrel stallion.

“All right, Henry,” Alec said. “Everything is okay.”

Henry turned to see all the other people in the area watching them; then, taking the Black by the bridle, he opened the door.

With Alec holding him, the stallion moved quickly from the stall. He snorted repeatedly but made no effort to rear or break away.

“I think he’s going to do all right, Henry,” Alec said.

“We’ve only just started,” Henry returned.

The Black moved quickly up the row, as though eager to reach the track. Near the gate, Henry boosted Alec into the saddle. “What’d I tell you!” Alec said excitedly. “Not one bad move!”

Shaking his head, Henry said, “Sure seems you’re right, Alec. Hard to believe. Get going now, but just a slow gallop.”

It was only when the Black and Alec were on the track that Henry shouted. For the trainer’s gaze had turned to Kashmir rounding the first turn and, suddenly, he thought he knew why the Black’s head had turned neither to the left nor right coming up the row … why he had been so eager to reach the track. The Black knew Kashmir was ahead of him. He could be going after the sorrel stallion!

Henry shouted again to Alec, but the boy was out of hearing distance. Fearfully Henry watched the Black quickly shift his action to a full gallop. He saw Alec’s attempts to hold him back, but there was no shortening of the giant strides. Surely the Black intended to run Kashmir down! Turning abruptly, Henry hurried back to the stables.

Alec kept a tight hold on the Black, remembering that Henry had told him he wanted only a slow gallop. But the Black had hold of the bit and was pulling hard. He wanted to stretch out still more. And it was only natural that he wanted to go, Alec thought, with Kashmir ahead of him.

Moving lower against the black neck, he called to his horse, “Take it easy, fella. It’s too early. It’s not the way Henry wants us to do it.”

Still pulling, the Black moved into the first turn, and his strides lengthened even more.

When they came off the turn, Alec saw the sorrel stallion halfway down the backstretch. It was then that the Black screamed and took over. His body leveled out, yet his head was high with ears pricked forward.

There was nothing Alec could do now but stay with the Black. He had no control over him, for the stallion was running wild. Screaming, the Black bore down upon Kashmir and was directly behind him going into the turn.

The jockey riding Kashmir turned his head, then raised his whip to ward off the oncoming stallion. The Black lunged for Kashmir’s neck. Desperately Alec tried to take him away as the whip came down to strike his horse on the nose.