His horse Champion steals the show from Gene when what's at stake is a horse race and a bull fight.

Express rider Gene is robbed and left in the desert to die. He is saved when he captures and rides a wild horse. He uses the horse to round up other horses to be used in the race for the government contract. But his competitor Ford was behind the robbery and he now plans to make sure Gene loses.—Maurice VanAuken <[email protected]>

Pony Express rider Gene Autry has his horse shot out from under him when nearing his California destination and is knocked unconscious. His attackers rob his mail pouch of a money package and ride away. Gene finds the torn wrapper, bearing the California address of Delores Moreno, to whom the cash was going, to meet delinquent taxes on her vast ranchero. At the ranch, Delores with Matt Ford, scheming owner of the adjoining rancho, is watching Frog Millhouse and the other cowhands trying to break a beautiful but vicious wild horse known as El Diablo. The horse, trailing a rope from its neck, breaks away and heads for the hills. Gene, struggling through the mountains afoot, rescues the horse from a wolfpack and wins its confidence and, the next morning, rides El Diablo to the Moreno ranch. Caldwell, owner of the Pony Express system, is in California to buy horses and a race is proposed between Ford's stock of thoroughbreds and Miss Moreno's mustangs, with Caldwell buying stock from the winner for use as Pony Express mounts. Ford has the Moreno horses stampeded and this forces Gene---who is riding for Delores---to race only a few mustangs against Ford's twenty thoroughbreds. And Ford pulls another trick to ensure his stock will win.—Les Adams <[email protected]>