Free Photo Finish by Bonnie Bryant

have to find out where the other racers are stabled. Let’s go find Judy and ask her.”
    The vet stepped into the stable shed at that very moment. “Hi, girls,” she said when she saw them. “What are you up to?”
    “We were just coming to look for you,” Carole told her. “Do you know where the other Preakness horses are? We want to go see them.”
    “Sure,” Judy said. She quickly gave them the names and stables of several of the other competitors. Lisa jotted them down in her notebook. “By the way, Max wanted me to give you a message if I saw you. He wants you to meet him back here at noon or a little before to go to lunch.”
    “Okay,” Lisa said, glancing at her watch. “Tell him we’ll be here.”
    The Saddle Club headed for the first stable shed on their list. Inside, they found a restless gray colt named Seattle Skyline. They also found Deborah, who was interviewing the colt’s trainer. The Saddle Club waited for her to finish while they watched the horse, who kept tossing his head from side to side, kicking his stall, and doing everything else he could to express his nervous energy. Several grooms did their best to keep him quiet, but to no avail.
    “He’s always like that before a race,” Deborah told the girls as they left the stable together a few minutes later.“Somehow he can always tell when it’s race day, and it gets him all worked up. A lot of people think that’s why he doesn’t win more often. He uses up all his energy before he even gets near the starting gate.” She shrugged. “It’s a shame. He has great breeding. His dam is Miss Seattle, the daughter of Seattle Slew, one of the greatest racers in recent history. And his sire is a terrific stakes horse named Sky Over Miami.”
    “So that’s how he got his name?” Lisa asked. “Miss Seattle plus Sky Over Miami equals Seattle Skyline? That’s neat.”
    Deborah laughed. “It is kind of neat. A lot of Thoroughbreds get their names that way.”
    “What are Monk’s parents’ names?” Stevie asked curiously.
    “His mother was Bright Penny, and his father was Organ Grinder,” Deborah said. “Get it?”
    Stevie and Carole looked a little puzzled, but Lisa smiled. “I do. Organ grinders are those old-fashioned street musicians who used to have performing monkeys. And bright means the same as shiny.”
    “Right. And there you have it: Monkeyshines,” Deborah said. “Racehorses’ names don’t always combine both parents’ names—sometimes they don’t even use one. But it’s fun when they do.”
    By this time the group had reached the stable of the next racer on the girls’ list. It turned out that Deborahwanted to ask the horse’s owner a few questions, so she accompanied the girls inside.
    “Well, well,” an unpleasant voice greeted them. “If it isn’t the hotshot Washington reporter and her troop of Girl Scouts.” It was Kent Calhoun. He was standing just inside the entrance, talking to a small man who looked like a jockey.
    “Hello, Kent,” Deborah replied coldly. She turned to the little man. “Is your boss around? I’d like to ask him a few questions.”
    The jockey directed her to the small office at the end of the aisle and Deborah turned to go. “I’ll see you later, girls,” she told The Saddle Club. “Enjoy yourselves.”
    As soon as she’d disappeared into the office, Carole turned to her friends. “I think we’d enjoy ourselves a lot more somewhere else, if you know what I mean,” she said, glancing at Kent.
    Stevie and Lisa nodded, and the three friends turned to leave.
    “Aw, leaving so soon?” Kent called after them sarcastically. But the girls didn’t wait to answer.
    Once outside, Lisa looked at her list. “I think the next stable is back that way,” she said, pointing. “Way at the end of the row closest to the paddock.” The girls knew from their previous experience at the racetrack that the paddock was where the horses were saddled before each race. It was located