Forget the Arc de Triomphe; even an ordinary race in France was beyond the imagination of Oguri Cap, who had just successfully debuted at Kasamatsu.
Any image she tried to conjure up now would just be a "peasant's dream of a golden carrying pole"—without having seen it in person, how could she possibly have an accurate impression?
Zhou Tai'an understood this and didn't want his Horse Girl to dwell on the matter.
So he cleared his throat, preparing to have Oguri Cap start her cool-down recovery training.
"Since you just raced yesterday, the intensity of today's training will be kept low. Keep your pace at 20 seconds per 200 meters, run three laps around the academy's training track, then do a set of stretching exercises with the academy's equipment, and that will be the end of today's training. For the rest of the time, I hope you can learn singing and dancing from Northan Ace to strengthen your performance in the winning live."
After laying out Oguri Cap's entire afternoon schedule, Zhou Tai'an waved his hand, signaling for her to leave. He planned to talk to Brand New Shine next about her future duties.
Oguri Cap saw her trainer's gesture, but instead of turning around, she looked up and stared at him.
"Trainer, can I run with you once?" Oguri Cap asked. This was something she had wanted to try since last night. "Trainer said he could also achieve the times I ran in the race... I want to know if that's true."
"I could, yes," Zhou Tai'an gave an awkward laugh. "But after a run like that, I'm afraid you'll only be seeing me in the hospital for the next few months."
"But if Trainer said that, he must have run before, right?" Brand New Shine chimed in.
"I have indeed," Zhou Tai'an raised his hands in a French military salute. "During my internship in America, the Horse Girl assigned to me wasn't very convinced of my abilities, so we had a race on the training track."
"And the result?" Oguri Cap blinked, pressing for more.
"I lost, of course," Zhou Tai'an said with a matter-of-fact tone. "You can't expect me to beat a Horse Girl from the West Coast Tracen Academy, can you? The level there is even higher than Japan's 'Central'."
"Mmm—" Oguri Cap pouted, once again realizing that she still seemed to have a long way to go to achieve her and her trainer's goals.
At this moment, it was late at night on the West Coast of America, but Los Angeles, the capital of California, was a well-known city that never sleeps.
A few Horse Girls from the West Coast Tracen Academy, on their summer break with no races, had chosen to come here for a night out, even bringing along a Horse Girl from their team who was debuting this year.
"Pay Tribute~" Squirtle Squirt, walking at the front of the group, called out her junior's name. "Don't hang your head. It's okay if you haven't broken your maiden yet. There'll be more chances later."
"Thank you, senpai," the bay-coated Horse Girl at the back of the group replied weakly. "But I've already run five races. I just feel like I'm getting further and further away from a victory."
"How can that be? You have to trust our trainer's judgment. He said you're a Horse Girl who can win a G1, Pay Tribute!" Squirtle Squirt said with a grin, reaching out to mess up her junior's neatly combed hair.
"But he also said that the Chinese trainer who was in charge of you, senpai, would definitely make a name for himself at our academy," Pay Tribute retorted. "But in the end, didn't he just resign and disappear without a trace?"
Squirtle Squirt's face darkened, but she still defended the trainer who had trained her for a while. "That guy is actually really skilled."
"How skilled?" a dark bay Horse Girl walking beside Squirtle Squirt asked with a grin. "You're a Horse Girl with two G1 wins in dirt sprints. When he was training you, Squirtle Squirt, you were already a big favorite for the Breeders' Cup. So I don't think he played much of a role."
"A.P. Indy, you can't say that. Actually, Sir Zhou was a big help..." Squirtle Squirt could only mutter a weak rebuttal to her teammate, who had four G1 wins in her Twinkle Series career, including heavyweight titles like the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders' Cup Classic. "And he's really fast, too."
Although the Horse Girls present had heard the whole sentence, they instinctively ignored the first part.
"Fast?" A.P. Indy's eyes lit up with interest. "How fast?"
"Because he was an intern trainer, I wasn't very convinced of him at first. Then he suggested we do a fast work chasing practice together on the training track," Squirtle Squirt scratched her head.
"And the result?" A.P. Indy pressed on. "What was the result?"
"I won, of course!" Squirtle Squirt pouted. "You didn't expect to hear that I lost, did you?"
"But you probably didn't win by much?" A.P. Indy smiled. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have said that just now, Squirtle Squirt."
"I really didn't win by much," Squirtle Squirt shrank back. "Only half a second."
"That is pretty close," A.P. Indy, who had been joking just a moment ago, her expression changed after hearing the detailed margin. "You're a G1 winner."
"That's why I said that... and you guys didn't believe me," Squirtle Squirt was also aggrieved. "Who knew an intern trainer could run so fast."
"No wonder he was on crutches for the rest of his internship," A.P. Indy retorted. "So that's why. No wonder the trainer refused to answer when I asked him about it."
"Humans are just too fragile," the other Horse Girls chimed in. "To need crutches after just one fast work session, that's really not good enough."
Only Pay Tribute was silent. She was secretly comparing herself to Squirtle Squirt in her mind and quickly concluded the gap between them—in an 800-meter fast work, she would probably be left behind by 1.5 seconds, a gap of nearly ten lengths.
"An intern trainer could be only half a second behind..." Pay Tribute bit her lip. "Doesn't that mean he could leave me in the dust?!"
"I really don't have any talent as a Horse Girl, do I?!" She clenched her fists and followed sullenly behind her seniors.
The night in Los Angeles was still bustling, but Pay Tribute felt utterly alone.
-------
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