Chapter 106. Secretariat's Advantage and Dober's Gate Position
After running through a handful of spot checks on her training, Shuta An confirmed what he'd suspected — Mejiro Dober's condition truly was at its peak for the year.
"After the Turf Classic, you get two weeks off before we start prepping for the Hong Kong Cup."
The gate positions hadn't even been drawn yet, but Shuta An saw no harm in letting her in on what came next early.
"Even with two weeks off, there's not much I actually want to do."
Mejiro Dober let out a sigh, head wrapped in a towel as she sprawled across her lover's lap.
"Ann, do you have anything lined up after this?"
"Once the Breeders' Cup wraps, I head back to Japan. There's a mountain of work waiting for Teio after the Kikuka Sho — I already pushed it back a few days just so I could be here with you through these last stretches."
He reached up, gently working the towel-wrapped crown of her head with careful fingers.
"Everyone keeps improving, which means the workload keeps growing right along with them."
"After that, there's Rice Shower's first shot at a graded race. We've only got a handful of Uma Musume on the Sadalsuud roster, and I'm already stretched thin. I genuinely don't know how Miss Tojo and Kitahara-san manage the volume they do."
"They've got their methods." Dober's fingers curled around his wrist. "After Teio won the Kikuka Sho — did anything change for you, Ann? In your day-to-day life?"
"More companies are lining up to book Teio for commercials and endorsements." He answered without missing a beat. "That's really the only visible change. Personally, I don't feel any different."
"Though that's not to say winning the Kikuka Sho left no mark on me at all."
He lowered his gaze, and it drifted, not entirely by choice, toward the curve of her chest.
"If we'd lost that race, I wouldn't have the luxury of sitting here like this right now."
"I could tell you were carrying a lot of pressure before that race."
Dober's eyes opened, meeting his directly.
"Other Uma Musume and their Trainers are allowed to lose sometimes. Teio and you — you never are. Honestly, though — the pressure on you now should be a lot lighter than it was before the Kikuka Sho, shouldn't it?"
She blinked at him expectantly.
"It really is." He admitted it without hesitation. "Because I think your odds of winning this race are very good."
"Heh. Then I'll take that as a good omen." She pouted slightly. "After the race, I'm planning to visit Ardan-nee with Ramonu-nee."
"Go for it. From there, you can head straight to Hong Kong — it'll be a much shorter trip than starting from Japan."
He gave his blessing without hesitation.
—
That afternoon, as the two of them curled up together in front of the TV, Miesque arrived at Laurel Way 1460 to personally deliver the invitation to the draw ceremony.
"Maybe I shouldn't have come right now."
Miesque took one look at the scene in the living room the moment the door opened and instinctively took a step back.
Dober sat up quickly and settled beside Shuta An instead.
The young man, for his part, wore an expression of perfect innocence, as though nothing at all had been happening.
"Miesque, delivering an invitation in person — I'm honored."
She handed the invitation over, then, with practiced efficiency, plucked a bottle of Celis white beer from the temperature-controlled wine cabinet, popped the cap, and downed nearly half of it in one go before she finally spoke.
"Tonight, seven PM. The draw ceremony's at the Beverly Hills Hotel."
"Sounds like they didn't skimp on the venue budget this time." Shuta An grinned. "Shame this house probably isn't big enough to host it — otherwise I could've rented it out to the committee myself."
"Don't bother." Miesque rolled her eyes at him. "Outside the handful of us who actually cashed in big on the Dream Cup, the rest of the committee are tighter with money than you'd believe. The Beverly Hills Hotel venue this time around? That was Secretariat's idea."
"Oh — oh~"
Shuta An couldn't quite hold it in, nearly bursting out laughing before he caught himself.
Once Miesque had left, Dober turned to him, quiet and curious.
"Ann — why did you almost laugh, hearing that the venue was Senior Secretariat's idea?"
"Eh? Was it that obvious?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"Senior Miesque was too busy with her beer to notice, but I felt it clearly enough."
Dober gave his wrist a light squeeze.
"Well..." He passed the opened invitation over to her. "Because the hotel they picked for the venue? Secretariat actually owns it — the real controlling stake, I mean. Every cent of it, earned herself."
Dober's hand flew to cover her mouth.
The Mejiro family carried plenty of prestige, but their combined assets probably didn't come close to matching the value of a single hotel under Secretariat's name.
Is the Dream Cup really that lucrative?
For a moment, Dober found herself quietly reconsidering whether she ought to head straight into the Dream Trophy Series once she retired from the Twinkle Series two years down the line.
"It's because she's Secretariat." Shuta An shook his head. "Whatever she touches turns a profit. That's just how it goes with her."
"Anyway — back to the gate positions." He shifted the subject smoothly. "Dober, is there a particular gate you're hoping for?"
"Anything except Gate 1 or Gate 12 works for me."
She gave her answer plainly — Gate 1 sat on the innermost rail, Gate 12 on the outermost edge. Wanting to avoid both extremes was a perfectly reasonable ask.
"I'm hoping for the same thing." He took her hand in his. "The sweet spot's really Gates 5 through 8."
When the draw for the Breeders' Cup Turf Classic finally arrived, Dober's name came up fourth in the order. The guest drawing the numbers reached into the pool, twisted a ball open, drew out the slip inside, unfolded it, and held it up for the room to see.
5.
"It really is Gate 5!"
Dober nearly shouted the words outright. She spun and threw her arms around her Trainer.
"This is the best possible gate for us!"
"That's right — the best one there is."
Shuta An smiled, sliding an arm around her waist, then gave her a gentle nudge.
"Go on, it's time to head up and share your thoughts."
"Mm-hm!" She nodded, reluctantly slipping free of his arm, then rose and made her way to the stage.
"So — what are your thoughts on the draw?" the host asked, the question warm but routine.
"There's no gate I could have asked for that's better than this one. I'll make the most of it, and I'll give my very best out there the day after tomorrow. I won't let the fans who support me down."
Dober's answer landed exactly as it needed to.