Post by S u N f r O s T ~ on Aug 27, 2013 13:48:46 GMT -5
ETERNAL PHANTOM AND KRYSTAL YHATE
FIRE DANCER AND AMBER BLACK
PHANTIE'S AND FIRE'S WORKOUT FOR THE PROVETTO DERBY
As stables grew, there was one problem that they ran into - conflicts between horses who ran approximately the same distance and surface. Should the stable be unlucky, said horses would hit the same grade and be running the same distances and surfaces together. That was when said stable would attempt to situate one horse on one track and the other horse at the other. In the case of Eternal Phantom and Fire Dancer, just about all of these criteria were met. Fire Dancer was a mainstay Wire runner. She had a mysterious dislike for the Green Horse Fields track and seemed to only run her best here at the Wire. Fire Dancer was overshadowed by her stablemate Eternal Phantom. The black daughter of Night Stalker and El Sol Del Mar had taken a record four awards last year including Horse of the Year. She was nothing short of talented. But Fire Dancer was talented as well, and Krystal Yhate thought it was time to show it.
Krystal delicately snapped on her helmet then vaulted onto the back of her not delicate at all bay mare. Fire Dancer, daughter of Native Flame, stood in silence. The intimidation level of the seventeen hand high mare was up full throttle, and wherever Fire looked Krystal imagined she saw fireballs thrown from the glare. Fire Dancer was nothing short of a senior and amazing racehorse to Krystal. The mare taken third in the These Old Bones Stakes in late August before roaring home for a win in the Delaware Handicap at the beginning of the month on her favorite racetrack. Fire had been training like a machine. It was like she knew it was her final season. The long lasting mare was as treasured for her heart as much as her sire Native Flame had been. Krystal always counted it among her blessings that she was lucky enough to own a Native Flame foal. Not many people had bought into the stallion, and now Fire was nothing less than a twenty plus win champion.
She rode Fire on the way to the dirt track and then stopped and dismounted by Amber's side. Amber was holding the reins of Eternal Phantom. Phantie was also Krystal's ride. In this particular case of conflicts, even the riders clashed. She had expressed a desire to get Fire ready for Amber before doing the workout with Phantie. In the Provetto, Krystal would be riding Phantie and Amber would be riding Fire. Amber grinned as she vaulted onto the back of the bay mare. Fire didn't react at all to the change in rider. In fact, it was like she barely cared. Amber had broken and trained the mare when she was very young before Krystal had taken over. And she had ridden Fire as well when the time had come for her to do so. Riding Fire in the Provetto was no problem. They would stick with the small pack of Souvenir and Stalker's Fury while Phantie decided just where she wanted to run.
Krystal vaulted into the saddle of her glorious black mare and grinned broadly. Phantie was sizzling with energy and overloaded with the intimidation factor. After blazing to two victories in August the mare had taken September off until this moment. Now she was roaring to race, had practically beaten up her poor groom Wanda Brown on some occasions. Wanda had recovered easily from such affairs and expressed no ill intent. It was just her mare expressing her always present desire to go out and pummel some horse. The fire was rising within the black mare. She really wanted to go. And when it came to Fire Dancer, a well known barn and race rival, she wanted to go even more. Fire and Phantie glanced at each other, riders up and moving out to the dirt track. Their eyes sizzled and their muscles flexed. Neither horse backed away or changed their pace as they made way and then trotted, dead even, down the Wire's dirt track. The air was charged and sizzling with electricity. The two mares were already engaged in what appeared to be their eternal conflict with one another.
They accelerated to a canter and Amber felt out the movements of Fire Dancer. The tall mare moved with all of her powerful body down the track. There was nothing particularly graceful about her - Fire just thrummed with power and was loaded with stamina. She was a Risorgimento series veteran. Winner of the Novizio two years ago, winner of the Consumato last year and now the hopeful winner of the Provetto, if they could get there. Fire was perfectly content to listen to her commands as long as she stayed alongside Phantie. She wasn't letting the hellish black mare get away from her. Her coat was burnished a reddish bronze like a flame and Amber indeed wondered if Fire was actually on invisible fire. She was burning from the inside out with intensity and promises of blistering speed. Amber knew she was in for quite the ride.
Phantie felt like she always did. She moved with lithe grace and exuded class like a horse of her stature should. She knew how to throw down the gauntlet and run gate to wire for the win. She also knew how to close from behind and pick off her competitors with a burst of speed. Krystal knew that they would decide on their strategy when the gates opened and they evaluated the pace. Though with Fire in the field, Krystal believed Phantie would either want to pummel her and go right to the lead or desire to stay with her and adopt her closing style. Whatever the case, it was going to be a wild ride. Krystal hunkered down in the saddle and glanced at Amber. The head trainer and owner of SOPS was counting down the furlongs. Krystal waited for it, watched for the finger motions and responded when she saw what she was looking for.
Fire blazed ahead on a sudden train of speed, but Phantie went right with her. Krystal's instructions and Phantie's natural instincts carried them alongside the bay filly that was their competition as they galloped. The pair whisked around the turn and began to glide down the backstretch. There was nothing short of absolute power in Fire's strides and nothing short of graceful, predatory glory in Phantie's. The two mares were magnificent as they moved down the backstretch. The cornerstone of SOPS's classic dirt division, the pride and joy of their riders and breeders. Neither gave an inch as they whistled down the stretch. The pace was picking up without urging as the final turn came. They switched their leads and tackled the turn like the pros they were. The sharpness of these two mares was exhilarating and glorious.
As they flew like lightning into the stretch both Amber and Krystal knew what they wanted. They asked for more, leaning in and asking with the barest of urgings. Fire and Phantie exploded, still head to head, neither a beat behind the other. Their legs blurred and their tails streamed out behind them, creating wind that would blow a bystander away. They did it all on their own as they flashed under the wire, and remained dead even as their riders slowed them down. This had been a lung opener, nothing more for the two ladies. But this workout had been much more for Krystal and Amber. A battle was always being waged where these two were involved. A conflict. And it would continue for sure in the Provetto Derby.
The flames had been stoked. The stage had been set. Now they would just have to wait and see who wanted it more.
