twelve o'clock
`` All right , Dixon , '' Porter replied . `` It may be that we 've broke our bad luck with the little mare . '' They were standing in the paddock during this conversation . It was in the forenoon ; Dixon had come over to the Secretary 's office to see about some entries before twelve o'clock . When the Trainer had finished his business , the two men walked across the course and infield to Stable 12 , where Dixon had his horses . As they passed over the `` Withers Course , '' as the circular track was called , Dixon pointed to the dip near the lower far turn . `` It 's a deuced funny thing , '' he said , speaking reminiscently , `` but that little hollow there settles more horses than the last fifty yards of the finish ; it seems to make the soft ones remember that they 're runnin ' when they get that change , an ' they stop .