Читать книгу Citizen - Charlie Brooks - Страница 24

‘Now we come to lot number seventy-three, Stella Maris,’ announced the auctioneer Jimmy Giles. ‘Twice a Group One winning mare. By Giant’s Causeway out of Star Dust. An absolutely first-class prospect, ladies and gentlemen.’

It may have been a freezing, black February night, but inside the ring the atmosphere was red hot. The likes of Stella Maris are not seen in the ring very often. If it hadn’t been for Robinson’s dire lack of funds, she wouldn’t have been there at all. She swaggered around the ring taking everything in. The sales ring is a claustrophobic place when it’s packed and she was beginning to feel it coming in on top of her.

‘God, I hope she behaves herself,’ whispered Tipper.

Jimmy also looked a trifle anxious. This was by far the most valuable horse he’d ever auctioned. If the truth be known, he was not the world’s greatest hammer man, but he did play a bit of golf at the Royal Worlingham with Rupert Robinson, and Robinson liked him. Even more, he liked Jimmy Giles’s daughter Cassandra, who he’d run into in a couple of clubs in London. So Robinson had insisted to the sale company that Cassandra’s old man should be on the rostrum when his mare went through the ring.