CHAPTER 1
An ordinary horse racing family in mid-Illinoisconsisted of a father, mother, two sons,and a daughter. However, the youngest,Zachariah Butler, was different. He was anexcellent groom, always around when needed,and would give an extra look to a horse nobodyelse seemed to see. His eyes were kind. He couldand would go the extra mile with you, but theniceties stopped there. His mother suspectedZach had teeth of iron. Those teeth groundtogether when Zach was absorbed in his horsebusiness. Zach's particular knowledge of a goodhorse was thoroughly embedded within and don'tbother him with thoughts, simpleton. Talking toZach was a chore - he was always looking pastthe ones talking to him at something seeminglyfar off. Mother Butler kept her thoughts to herselfand many times she wondered about her son.Was he an enigma? What drove him? Who washis drummer? She also noted Zach dropped hisleft eyelid whenever he saw a horse that touchedthe bottom of his heart.
PARTING OF THE WAYS
As the Butler children matured a familyjudgment was assessed. Jim, the oldest, wouldstay at home and be incorporated into the familyoperation. Beth, the daughter, married outside thefamily business interests; and Zach was more orless told to look for other employment. Thesituation suited Zach just fine as he relished goinghis own way.
He was loosened from family ties; and,with a deep faith in the eternal God and thecrucified Son, he set out on his own. There wasonly one thing he wanted to do and that was torace horses some day. To do so took land andmoney. He had neither. So, he took his strongback, kind eyes, and iron teeth to a localcontractor and applied for work. His boss put himin cement work. He was an employer's dream alwayson time, adept, and healthy. He soonmoved up the pay scale, living in Spartanconditions and saving money. In a year he hadenough money saved to make a down payment ona small forty-acre, run down farm. Thedilapidated barn had poor, see-through siding anda sagging roof. The first priority was to repair theroof, replace rotten lumber, and shore up supportbeams. The second was to build five fifteen-footsquare stalls within the tired old walls.
Zach's construction job allowed himaccess to surplus materials. He fashioned stallcorner posts from broken telephone poles chainsawed to the proper lengths. He used second-handbridge planks in the sides of the stalls to givethem a massive look of strength. He didn't wantto come to the barn some morning to find thesides of the stalls kicked down and a horse full ofsplinters. Things had to be done right or not at all.The horse smells, the shedrow, the racetrack, andderby days were still far away but Zach was onhis way, and he was confident hard work anddetermination would soon pay off. Tunnel visionhad no better vessel.
ZACH BUTLER COMMENCES
In a high risk endeavor like racehorses, alimited finance posture requires defensivewisdom. Zach chose to buy fillies. If they didn'tpan out, he could always sell them or put them ina brood mare band. By buying yearlings, he hadtime to sharpen his horsemanship skills, and theywere something that fit his pocketbook. Hebought six hoping one would make it to theracetrack. None did, but Zach wasn't unnerved.The six had given him a polished horse educationand Zach was ready to sally forth again.
One fall day, the whole Butler family wentto a thoroughbred sale. As they looked over theoffering, a groom led a gray yearling colt pastthem. Mother Butler observed something shehadn't seen in a long time - the gray got Zach'scomplete attention, for his left eyelid dropped tohalf-mast. She knew Zach had found his horse.He was sold near mid-sale when some of thecrowd's enthusiasm waned and Zach got him for anominal fee. Zach had his foot in the door ofquality horses and the race crowd would soonknow it. A plain, cheap quarter horse gelding ofthe same age was purchased as a companion tokeep the new horse, Monk, company. Zach's trainwas beginning to chug, slowly but surely.
Since Zach was away at his constructionjob every day, a day man had been hired. Hisname was Roy Brown. He was given two jobs:working with the two colts, and building one five-acrepasture paddock to the rear of the barn and aone-acre exercise lot in front in which to breakthe two colts for riding. Money was scarce, butZach Butler wasn't to be denied. He had a goodhorse in his barn and Roy was a faithful worker.Winter came and Roy went back home with thepromise to return in the spring. The two horseshad plenty of barn and a five-acre paddock toroam and play. The winter winds blew throughthe gaping cracks of the barn siding, but the twohorses had thick coats and their bellies were fullof grain and hay. Life couldn't be better.
Spring finally came. Monk was now shedoff and was a big strapping two-year-old. Roycame back and was now breaking the two horsesto ride and was doing an excellent job with them.Zach decided to stay clear of Roy - leave himalone. Only when major decisions were made didZach intervene. Time went on; Monk was nowtwenty-eight months old. The ugly duckling lookwas gone and he had a lot of that "He" look tohim. Zach's only directions to Roy about Monk'straining were that there should be no speed work,only long walks, trots, and slow gallops.
Summer grew into fall and fall into winter.Zach's parents knew a good trainer in the Southwhere Monk was shipped for serious training.Monk ate it up.
THE FIRST RACE
In the midst of the training reports andZach's work schedule, Zach was making frequenttrips to the South and the training track where theother competitors were also training; a harriedlifestyle developed. But again, Zach was up tothe task. He watched the other horses in trainingand mentally catalogued each one that would bein Monk's first race. He noticed that one suchhorse, the favorite, didn't like close competitionand was rope- walking badly behind; he wasn'tshod right. If and when that horse straightensout, he would be tough competition in the future.So, he decided they would keep the pressure onhim in the race so that he could very well ruinhimself for future races.
Monk had only one exercise rider and hewas told never let Monk out; keep the wraps onhim.
Race day finally came. Zach's iron teethbegan to grind. His instructions to his jockeywere twofold: First, ruin the favorite; we don'twant to meet that horse again - "he didn't sufferfools gladly;" and second, if possible, barely winthe race. By keeping Monk on the favorite's offshoulder, at the quarter pole the favorite shouldstart to come apart. Swing wide; you should haveenough horse to win, but don't win by very much.Again, the goal was to keep Monk's talentscovered as much as possible. The big derby in lateJuly had a $100,000 purse that Zach was after.
The race came and went as planned. Thefavorite made his surge with Monk close to him.At the quarter pole, the favorite began to comeapart behind as Zach had figured, and the big grayMonk swung wide and won by a half a length.
Monk was raced again in June, winningonly by a length as planned; again the wraps werekept on him as much as possible. In the leakyroof circuit, winning a race was barely noticeablein the high echelons. However, just enough newshad begun to drift upward to the higher-ups abouta power horse from the corn country. For thatreason, Monk wasn't taken to the derby track fortraining for the big derby in July but was trainedat a private track twenty miles away. He trainedwell and with good competition in the derby thebest of Monk would be demonstrated.
Zach had three things on his min
