The Two-Horse Job

“	Horses are much less murderous than I originally thought.	”
— Parker

When high-rolling Wall Street broker Alan Foss burns down a stable to kill his under-performing racehorses as part of an insurance fraud scheme, the Leverage Consulting & Associates team goes to Kentucky to help the disgraced stable owner, who has lost everything. The team must deal with unexpected problems when Eliot Spencer reunites with his angry former fiancée Aimee. Complicating things further is the sudden appearance of Nate's I.Y.S. Insurance rival, James Sterling, who is a bit too interested in what the team is up to.

The Clients[]

Willie Martin and his daughter Aimee Martin. Willie is a horse trainer who is now under investigation for arson and insurance fraud. He wants to get Baltimore, the only surviving horse back. Unfortunately, things are complicated due to the fact that Aimee is a former girlfriend of Eliot.

The Mark[]

Alan Foss, a Wall Street hedge fund manager, who burned down Willie's stables when his investments did not pay off. Foss attempts to frame Willie for the fire and commit insurance fraud.

Locations[]

Kentucky
- Kensington Racetrack Stables

The Con[]

Sophie poses as a bloodline horse agent and hooks Alan Foss into a high stakes poker game. Nate poses as Bob Gibson, a horse owner. Eliot poses as a trainer, Hardison poses as a wealthy Sheik. Parker is in another room in charge of the computer to track Foss's cards through a button camera on Nate's shirt and relay his hand to the team. Unfortunately, Foss proposes playing with a deck he bought in a gift shop, and the camera is unable to see through the cards, so the team is forced to improvise. The team takes Foss until he is forced to bet 'Baltimore' and loses as the team have helped Nate cheat to get the winning hand.

Sterling asks Nate what he's doing — James Sterling, Nate's old coworker and rival

Walking outside after the game, James Sterling pulls up in his car, interrogating and belittling Nate at the same time. Not understanding his new mission in life, Sterling simply thinks Nate is trying to solve the case first to get his job at IYS back. The team struggle to come up with a con that Sterling will not recognise and through a stray comment from Hardison, come up with The Lost Heir – make the mark think the horse is the descendant of legendary stock.

To convince Foss that the horse is a real winner they "borrow" Kentucky Thunder, as Baltimore is still recovering from the fire. Eliot, as Brad Mackey, Bob Gibson's trainer says that a horse from the Beijing Jockey Club survived. Foss is impressed with 'Fei Kuai' and intends to buy him using a hedge fund method, of several people putting up money to buy the horse. Hardison hacks the Jockey Club website to give 'Fei Kuai' impressive credentials including being a descendant of Secretariat.

Foss' investment group put up $12 million for 'Fei Kuai'. Eliot and Aimee go to get Kentucky Thunder from a stud farm so Foss can check it's microchip number so he will think he has the right horse. When this is confirmed, Eliot puts Kentucky Thunder into a stable as Foss watches.

The Reveal[]

While leading his investors to Fei Kuai, Sterling follows, insisting to Foss that the horse is not Fei Kuai but Kentucky Thunder. However, Kentucky Thunder's trainer, also in the group, denies that it's Kentucky when they get to the stable. Confounded, both Sterling and Foss use their scanners, which shockingly state the horse is actually Baltimore.

Switching out the Names — Switching the horse's names.

Unbeknownst to him, Parker and Hardison had switched out the name plates of the horses, while Sophie had mislead Foss through the stables. Sterling notes that, as Baltimore was insured for $200,000 and Foss was trying to insure 'Fei Kuai' for $12,000,000, he has committed insurance fraud and thus IYS is able to refuse the payment. Sterling leaves Foss to explain himself to the investors, now looking to him for their 10 million back.

Meeting with the client, Nate explains that, because of the fraud, the sale of Baltimore is void reverting back to the previous owner, which is technically Nate due to their original poker game. As part of justice for the Martins, Nate gives Baltimore to Willie, along with the twelve million the team received for 'Fei Kuai'.

Guest Cast[]

Rick Hoffman as Alan Foss
Jaime Ray Newman as Aimee Martin
Mark A. Sheppard as James Sterling

Aliases[]

Bob Gibson (Nate)
Katherine Beth Lovely, aka "Kitty" (Sophie)
Brad Mackey (Eliot)
Sheikh Kahlil (Hardison)
Phillip May (Mutt)

Episode Notes[]

Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California doubles as Kensington Racetrack in this episode. Santa Anita is famous its history with the fabled racehorse Seabiscuit, and is the home of the prestigious Santa Anita Handicap, one of the richest thoroughbred races. The racetrack has a long history of appearances in film and television, dating back to the Marx Brothers film A Day at the Races. The adjoining Santa Anita Mall also appears in the background.
The microchips carrying the bloodline of a horse are always injected into the left side of an animal's neck. When Alan Foss makes the transaction for "Fei Kuai", Eliot is asked beforehand to check the microchip number. He does so, but on the horse's right side, which Foss does not see because he's being distracted by Sophie.
The Beijing Jockey Club was a real turf club that operated in China from 2001 to 2005, when it was shut down following the abolition of gambling on horse racing by the Chinese government. At that time, 600 of the nearly 2000 horses bred by the club were destroyed, possibly because of losses of revenue.
This episode includes the introduction of I.Y.S. Insurance investigator James Sterling, Nate's rival. Sterling was developed as a recurring character who would worry even Nate, and would keep the team on edge when he's around.
According to Rogers' blog, this episode establishes the basic template for most episodes: the team runs Plan (con) A. Something goes wrong, leading them to move to Plan (con) B. Plan B either doesn't go quite to plan or disguises a third con (Plan C), leading to the surprise reveal at the end of the episode.

Major Events[]

James Sterling, Nate's rival from IYS is introduced in this episode. In the final scene of the episode, he warns Nate that he won't be so nice "next time". Nate replies in kind.

Trivia[]

Christian Kane wrote and performed the song More than I Deserve, featured in this episode.
"Fei Kuai" is Chinese for "Non-Fast"
This is the first episode in which Nate wears his now-trademark fedora. According to the episode commentary, the fedora was meant to be part of the character Nate was playing, but worked so well for Nate, they became a permanent part of his wardrobe.
One of the name plates that Parker changes out on the horse stall reads "La Devlin Vita", an obvious nod to producer Dean Devlin.
Parker is revealed to have a phobia of horses due to a childhood trauma involving a birthday entertainer dressed as a horse brutally beating a birthday clown to death.
Christian Kane's line of "Pony Express is never late, boss" was most likely a reference to his role as Abe Wheeler in the TV Mini-Series Into the West where he played a Pony Express rider.