the daughter of cry

The Wire Finish Cup Juvenile Sprint was a prestigious Juvenile sprint over at the turf track at The Wire. It would be tough, exciting, and especially very challenging, with the bombshell of the late entrant, Sophie’s Voice. All three entrants to the race had perfect consistency, keeping their 100% record. Innocent Passion was the heavily favoured filly in this race. She was consistent, and experienced – whereas Sophie’s Voice and our entrant, Tears Of An Angel had only raced twice. For all three fillies, it would be the make or break bid to win over at The Wire. Lucy was better rested than any of the field. Lucy’s previous race had been one week before Sophie’s Voice over at the Green Horse track. The filly hadn’t taken part in any major races, which didn’t really give her the sharp edge today. In fact, it stunted her chances of winning slightly. Soph had placed third in the Unicorn Horn Juvenile Sprint out of three – the filly wasn’t in the best form after she wasn’t seen on the track the days before the race. Innocent Passion had her confidence boosted – she had three wins and two shows under her belt, stamping her as the clear favourite – she won the Unicorn Horn Juvenile Turf Sprint, stamping her name down in one of the top two year olds to set foot on the Green Horse track recently.

Sophie’s Voice was the only front runner of this race, meaning she would have to take the lead. Lucy and Anna were both preceders, but Ivana’s plan for the race was to break quickly, and place ourself not too far behind Anna. Ivana wanted to save her last ounce of momentum for that home turn, where they change their leads at the top of the lane and fly down the home stretch to victory. Though Lucy had been rested to prepare for this race, she needed the work to even think about taking the victory. She needed to be prepared for this. Though she was perfectly consistent, her previous race against older horses didn’t go down to well, placing third behind Chicago Blues. It appeared that all horses were at a disadvantage right now, as none of them had ever raced at this track before in their racing careers. Lucy was one of them fillies who was quick-witted and extremely intelligent, which put her at an advantage. She would never lose focus on the track, unlike some horses would. On the track, she was known as a straight forward risk taker who would definitely try anything new.

The copper coated twin filly stepped out energetically onto the turf. She bobbed her head as she powerfully walked along the slightly softened surface before halting and letting out a little snort. She watched as other horses breezed energetically down the stretch of the track. Ivana sighed and looked around. Tomorrow, they would be gliding down that home stretch with confidence and coherence. Lucy would be ran as a stalker, as per usual, as she likes to use the leader or leaders to shadow the pace in which she uses to gain momentum from it. Allowing Lucy to look around, Ivana relaxed for a second. The filly tossed her mane and pawed at the turf beneath her. Smiling, the leather reins were gathered back into her hands. A little squeeze at the filly’s side and she glided smoothly into a trot, excelling over the surface with elegance. They were going to sprint half a mile from the gate today. Not a long distance, but then again if you think about it, it was only a furlong shorter than her shortest distance, and if you doubled it, it would make her maximum distance.

The whole idea was to break quickly and smoothly from the gate. We would breeze round the turn, then we would work for the remaining half a mile, hoping to finish the final two furlongs in approximately twenty one seconds flat. Seemed possible – but then again would she do it? Ivana continued to rise and fall with the beats of the filly’s trot. She flicked her toes out and snorted, swishing her mane about. She was excited to be out here, very excited. Tugging the reins, she wanted to go. Ivana giggled and smiled, standing in her stirrups as the filly rocked into a canter. A small snort escaped her flared nostrils with each stride. Chuckling Ivana entered the backstretched, slowing back down to a trot as they entered the half a furlong before the gates. The filly came back to a walk after a few seconds, then stood staring at the large metal gates. They didn’t phase her at all. Ivana took a deep breath and walked the filly forward to the handler, who loaded her in easily. He climbed to the side of the bar, holding the rein. Patiently, Ivana sat still, gripping a bit of loose mane at the bottom of Lucy’s neck. She shifted her weight in the gates and snorted impatiently. The bell rang and the handler let them go as the gates flew open.

Lucy broke out quickly and her long energetic stride from such a small filly carried both horse and rider well. Ivana bit her lip, and urged the filly up the turf for the first few strides. She relaxed temporarily and let the filly run at her own pace, which for a sprinter filly was relatively quick. Defying gravity on an a thousand kilo equine was something to be proud of – it took a lot of skill and there were many people in the world who thought they could get on a wild horse and jump a five foot wall. The first furlong went by and Ivana’s eyes began to water. Half way into the second furlong was when the strength and power began to wind up. Closing her eyes, Ivana pulled her crop from her jeans as they entered the top of the lane and passing the two furlong mark. The automatic timer on the stop watch had a sensor – whenever it passed the designated zones, it would time how long it took. The beep sounded and the crop cracked on the filly’s rump. The speed increased suddenly from a breeze to a sprint. Ivana stretched her arm out as much as possibly and the filly changed onto her outside lead, breezing down the stretch. She bit her lip hard and the final two furlongs flew by. Under the wire, the timer beeped again. Wiping her eyes clear of the tears, and stood in her stirrups and relaxed, bringing the filly back down her paces. Looking at her watch, she chuckled and shook her head. It read 20.93 seconds. Ivana stroked the neck of the warm filly and smiled. They were going to do well tomorrow.