horse lands right, a payday: whether in a
matter of weeks, at a breeze-up sale; or in
the longer term, on the track itself. If not:
well, your chips are scooped and you start
again.
"The little brown fillies," Woods says.
"They're the ones that surprise you. Some
of those big shiny colts don't have the
heart for the operation, they kind of with-
er under a little minor pressure. You can
just see them act cheap, just not be a man
about the job. But the little brown filly will
get you every time. Here she comes, 15.1,
weighs 900 lbs—and runs a hole in the
wind. That's the one that's hard to peg. You
look at her, she's nothing. And then: grad-
ed stakes horse on the grass.
"Not long after we got here, I had some
horses for Mr. Nerud. This filly comes down
the shedrow and she's crooked and small
and ratty-arsed. And he looks at her—not a
man short of an opinion—and he said: 'Son,
do that owner a favour and get rid of that
crooked little rat.' I said 'Yes sir.' But an A.P.
Indy filly, know what I mean, can't do that!
And she ended up earning 800 grand, and
the dam of Royal Delta. She was crooked,
she was small. And she moved beautiful-
ly. You can't judge them walking down a
shedrow."
The little brown fillies.
They're the ones that
surprise you.