He stroked the horse’s shoulder, bent down and absently ran his fingers down the tendon, then looked up, very serious. The job was for Terry Ellis, who we didn’t know from Adam, but he told us he owned Chrysalis Records, and he needed someone fast. Some trainers take their horses out in lots of fifty at a time—unheard of in New Zealand—and they never ride upsides; it’s always in single file. It was right at the start of the flat season, and the stable had only forty-eight horses in training. The lads talked their own horses up, but they were all piss and wind; Peter was bang on the money.