12 Sports Aces, May 1943 — page 69: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HOMESTRETCR HEADACHE — 67 © 0 Qe hs Or Oe Peek nn G oo Bor Genre eo G00 Oo Bee Ger t+ G41 Oe 11 oF oO See D5 Bee Sere Fe De ie Oe Wes O re Ore Bre@er Jackie was glad Tip was at the rail the next morning to see him work the wild- eyed Bad Boy a mile in fast time. Jackie left Bad Boy with Hollie and the stableswipe and, as soon as he dis- mounted, hurried eagerly over toward Tip. “Well, Mr. Murray—you clocked that mile,” Jackie bubbled. “Does the Boy look hot for the Wildmere?” Jackie looked at Tip, but Tip’s eyes didn’t meet his. His head was tilted, cocked at an acute angle toward the grandstand wall beside him. “You see who was working Tip Mur- ray’s horse?” a voice was saying beyond the grandstand’s partition wall. “The old boy’s washed up in pictures. Now he got this Jackie Reed kid riding for him. And you know who Reed is. I wonder if Mur- ray figzers—” Tip turned. Fists clenched, he started off for the door leading under the stand. The door was about a hundred yards down. Tip was standing there, his face flushed, breathing hard, when Jackie - trailed uncertainly up. There were as least @ dozen people under the stand. There was no way of knowing who had spoken. Jackie felt sick. Tip saw his look. Tip clapped him on the shoulder. “Nev- er mind, Jackie. To hell with them!” Jackie nodded, too stricken even to mumble appreciation, or protest Tip’s sticking out his neck for him. Jackie even forgot to talk about the big red’s going to the post in the Wildmere. Bad Boy wasn’t at his best the next day. Tip removed him from his stall at the track to private quarters on a ranch Tip had bought for the time when he’d have to face retirement. It would save Tip some expense, and there was a track handy nearby. The barns on the place were rickety, in bad repair, but they were full of hay and feed, and adequate. And Jackie and Hollie could live right there with Bad Boy and Retake and Blue ©’ Night. Jackie lay despondently in his bunk the following night. A suecession of events had brought him low. Tip had given him a chance to ride Bad Boy. He’d not brought home a winner. He’d tried to bring the big red Boy around to racing form. Today, in his werkout, for all he knew, the Boy showed he was right back where he had started. And worse than that, today the papers had all been full of a fight Tip had had with another actor in a studio lunchroom. The altercation was brief, but there were pictures. The thing bringing about the exchange of blows, putting Tip’s mussed and weary face in all the papers from coast to coast, was a remark involving “Tip’s employment of a jockey who was once barred from the tracks in a racing scandal.” Jackie got off his bunk. He dug into his valise, which he’d not yet unpacked. He found pencil and paper. He was glad little Hellie was out. trying to find an electrician to fix a short-eireuited line in one of the barns. Jackie wrete: Dear Mr. Murray: I am pulling out. You have been swell. But I think it’s best for both of us. You've got enough on your hands without my troubles, too. Thanks a million—and best luck on the Boy. JACKIE REED Jackie put the note in an envelope, ad- dressed it and placed it on the table in the bunkroom, where Hollie would find it. Hollie would get it to Pip. Jackie trudged down the road, lugging his valise. He felt empty, drained of strength. He just missed a bus, and an- other would not be along for twenty minutes. He went inte a bar near the bus stop to wait. IRE sirens screamed for nearly a half hour before they drilled into Jackie’s consciousness. He didn’t remem- ber how many drinks he’d had. Then he heard someone say, “It was the damn cheap wiring, the electrician told me. Those old Murray barns are going down like hay.....” Jackie sobered as if a growler of ice- water was poured down his spine. He jumped at the man who had spoken. “Sure,” said the man. “Tip Murray’s place—mile down the road.” EOPMICG OOKS (E@)