The Mentalist Episode 3.05 The Red Ponies

When jockey Bill Sutton is found murdered, Jane and the CBI are pulled deep inside the world of horse racing as a number of leads are uncovered. Among the suspects is Delinda LeCure, Bill's ex-fiancée, who left him due to the jockey's violent streak. Also under investigation is Phil Debolt, a large man whom Bill hospitalized during a post fender bender fight. We also suspect fellow jockey Sam Starks, who got Bill's riding assignments after his death and also suffered blows to both career and health due to a major riding accident that Bill had caused years earlier. Ellis Barnes, a race track con man who sells insider information to bettors, also seems like he might have something to do with the murder. But the truth seems like it is wrapped up in the larger conflict between rival stable owners Cobb Holwell and Frank Lockhardt. Cobb is the owner of the last independent stable in this part of the state, and is struggling to get out of debt. Bill and Sam are his only jockeys, and his only race-ready horse, Castor's Folly, doesn't seem fast enough to win a really big race. His only other promising horse is Castor's twin brother, Pollock's Dream, who is fast as the wind but too hot-tempered and dangerous to race. Lockhardt, on the other hand, is a commercial land developer, who is trying to run Holwell out of business so that he can buy up his stable. In the end, Jane uncovers the truth when Holwell enters Castor's Folly in the Pineapple Juice Stakes, a race so elite that the horse only has 1 in 100 odds of winning. Then, without telling the officials, he switches Castor's Folly with the much faster Pollock's Dream, betting his life's savings on his horse winning the race. After putting a burr under Dream's saddle to make everyone thing that it was a dangerous horse, Holwell figured no one would be the wiser and he could make 100 times his money back. Bill Sutton, not wanting any part of this treachery, was killed when he threatened to expose Cobb's fraud to the world.