Hokkaido Horse Racing Story.

Chapter 253 Five Hundred Yen

After finishing his visit to the stables, Kitano headed straight for the temporary stables.

Although I had considered taking the opportunity to visit a few more trainers, it was already past lunch break and most trainers were not at the training center.

Before we knew it, we'd gone a little too far with our conversation.

"That's the Minamiba Slope over there. From the observation tower, you can see the idiots at Tsukuba Dormitory playing around on their balconies."

The white-haired old man smiled and pointed to a building not far away.

It was Kato, the horse trainer, who volunteered to be the guide.

"That's right."

Kitano nodded with a subtle expression, carrying the bag in both hands and following behind the former trainer.

"You've come back to the stage manager again, Mr. Kato."

"Haha, after all, I'm the kind of guy who can't sit still."

As Kato passed by the parking lot near the South Stand, a staff member from Miura greeted him quite familiarly.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the staff turned their attention back to Kitano.

"You must be President Kitano. It's a pleasure to meet you."

My gaze lingered briefly on the opaque paper bag in his hand.

"Hello."

Kitano nodded slightly and responded in a tone that seemed no different from usual.

Only after the staff had walked a distance away did he secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

The paper bag contained gifts from both the trainer and the former trainer.

Besides commemorative shirts, which seem relatively normal, there was also the Sai-chan figure that Kato was holding not long ago.

Precisely--

It's a figure with both of their signatures added.

It looks even stranger now.

"That's the south grandstand of Mipo over there. There's also a monitoring room that's connected to the locker room."

Continuing the previous topic, Kato casually introduced the facilities in various parts of Miura.

It's hard to imagine that such a serious-looking face hides such a lively soul.

"By the way, the eldest son, Shizuhachi, looks a lot like Matoba."

If you lose focus even slightly, the conversation will immediately veer off to all sorts of unrelated topics, and in a way that's hard to respond to.

Fortunately, Kato steered the conversation back on track and continued to introduce the various facilities in front of them.

Although both are located in the stable area, the Mipo Training Center is so large that it took quite a bit of time to get to the temporary stables.

However, along the way, they also managed to obtain a lot of information about Miura from Kato.

Although it wasn't a systematic tour, it was enough to get a sense of how well-equipped the Mipo Training Center was.

From ranch breeding to stables at the training center, it seems there's still quite a long way to go—

"By the way! If you need to stay in Tokyo, how about trying the horse racing venue near Miura? It's only 500 yen a night for a VIP."

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted.

"Five hundred yen——"

"And because not many horse owners make a special trip here, they don't even use up the quarterly hospitality vouchers."

To be honest, the venue did give them a few paper coupons before they left.

It really helped a lot.

This trip to Tokyo was not a day trip like the previous ones.

As the main sponsor of WJS Japan, I naturally received an invitation to this year's competition.

The event will be held over the weekend of the next two days, and the venue has been moved from Sapporo last time to the local racetrack of Oi.

Although it's a shift from "central" to "local," the WJS campaign this time seems to have gained much more momentum than the last one.

Besides the cooperation of NAR in promotion, the geographical advantage of Oi Racecourse probably also provided a significant boost. Upon arriving at the temporary stables where Atalanta was being housed, the first thing you saw was the figure of Okizawa stable staff.

"Good evening, President Kitano."

A greeting style quite characteristic of Ooi.

It is said that both the staff at Oi Main Field and Kobayashi divide the day into "morning" and "evening" based on the end of morning training.

The staff in Saga seem to have a similar habit.

Good evening, Okizawa-kun.

After exchanging pleasantries that might seem a bit odd to outsiders, the two headed into the stables.

The previous guide, Katohara, left with a polite bow after saying, "Then I won't bother you any longer."

Surprisingly, he can become quite serious when he needs to be.

"Ata-chan's physique hasn't changed much from before, but thanks to her consistent training, the muscles around her shoulders have grown to some extent."

"It's good news about the Autumn Blossom Award."

"That's how it is—"

The horse owner and the stable boy walked into the stable with smiles on their faces.

Atalanta's physique was exactly as Okisawa's stableman had described; it had hardly changed since it left the ranch.

Upon hearing footsteps, the chestnut horse pricked up its ears warily.

"Haha, it's me, Ata-chan."

Okizawa, the stable boy, reached out to pat Atalanta's neck.

However, the chestnut horse nimbly dodged the attack and even took a few steps back to hide in the corner of the stable.

"Oh dear, I've always been the one feeding you delicious food—"

Okizawa exaggeratedly clutched his heart, putting on a very hurt expression.

"Perhaps your actions startled her, Okizawa-kun."

"Hey! It should be the same movement as Sasagawa's."

It doesn't look like it at all—

Putting those complaints aside, the two started talking about the topic they had just discussed.

"Tomorrow, Sasakawa-kun will be coming to ride the Shion Championship one week before the race. The bit part may be slightly adjusted based on Sasakawa-kun's feedback at that time."

"Thank you for your hard work. Leave the horseshoe part to the ranch."

I slightly regret not bringing Zep along earlier.

However, the yearlings at the ranch are in the adaptation and adjustment phase after their first hoof-mounting.

The Germans have been extremely busy these past few days.

After that, they had a lot of exchanges on training, and Kitano even took the opportunity to pat the head of the chestnut horse that had lowered its guard and approached.

In terms of feel, Noah's is still the best.

This concludes our trip to Mipo.

Carrying two bags full of souvenirs, I successfully checked into the Jockey Club before the sun scorched the ground.

After showing the invitation voucher, it turned out that there was indeed no charge.

Although the decor leans towards a simple style, it definitely meets the standards of a star-rated hotel.

In recent years, horse owners have rarely visited training centers, but usually, as long as they take the initiative to visit, they can achieve in-depth communication with the trainers.

Not only can you get professional advice from trainers, but you can also get first-hand information such as the racing status of unsuccessful new horses, the status of exchange race applications, and the number of horses in steeplechaser trials.

From the perspective of both horse owners and breeders, there are many benefits to regularly visiting training centers.

but--

After checking the route from the Mipo Training Center to Oi on the navigation software, I couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia for my second time watching the game.

Meipu is indeed very inconvenient.

(End of this chapter)