Back home, Gabriella, Mandrake's girlfriend, tired of the constant shortcomings of her partner, asks for advice from a fortune teller, who, without any purpose, induces her to bet on a Tris race.

The prediction of the fortune teller, however, is correct: Soldatino, King and D'Artagnan win the race and the astonished Mandrake, to save his relationship with Gabriella, shows her a false play by filling it with vain promises for the future.

De Marchis will also have the opportunity to triumph over his eternal rival Conte Dallara, owner of Bernadette, who has decided to bet on the sure win, since Rossini has never lost a race.

The first part of the plan succeeds perfectly, with Pomata, disguised as a police commissioner, kidnapping Rossini and making him believe he is at the centre of a plot, taking him to a farmhouse outside the city.

Here Mandrake tries to dissuade the judge with a gruelling speech on "who is" the horse-player[clarification needed] in a broad sense and then ends with the request for total mental infirmity.