occultation

[S u N f r O s T ~]

OCCULTATION
Fleet Majesty & Amber Black - Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf
an event that occurs when one celestial body conceals or obscures another

There were few horses that could make Amber Black sing for joy. Fleet Majesty was one of those few. Amber sang softly to the mare from the moment she grabbed her from her stall. Affection glowed in her green eyes, love was apparent in her voice and there was a softness in her hands as she groomed the filly that proclaimed more than anything else how special Mage was to her. The mare from unknown lines had somehow captured her heart in a way she hadn’t before since this summer. From the moment Mage had defended her title as Queen Elizabeth II Stakes champion, Amber’s eyes had opened a bit wider and she had understood Mage like never before. Here was a mare who did not have the outrageous talent of her foes, but had all the heart and the will. She won through the strength of her spirit more than the speed of her legs. When it came to winning, Mage was the horse on the track that worked the hardest to bring home every victory. And now…

You’re a grade one pony, you’re a grade one pony Amber sang as she walked the mare out and mounted up. Mage snorted, vibrating with energy like a sprinter, tossing her head and whinnying happily in response to the lyrics. She trusted Amber, would run through fire for her jockey and face down any foe. And she loved to hear her rider sing. Amber kept up a steady song of praises, all the time awash with love and pride. After so many years of work, Fleet Majesty had finally ascended to the title of grade one winner. Amber could have retired her then and there and been happy, but that would not have been right. So instead...they had a wide open field in the Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf to look forward to. Amber sang some praises to Mage in honor of that, and then included how much she looked forward to hunting the prey down. Oh, they would give the final race of Mage’s career their best shot. Amber didn’t know whether she should expect to win or not, but found that the win was not as important as making sure Mage had the final race that she deserved.

Determination soared in Amber now, and she sang quietly to the mare about how a win in this race would cement her name in history as the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes had. Mage snorted, accelerating when asked, enjoying the music as she began to warm up. She was a beautiful mare. Her light gray coat caught eyes, and she was impeccably groomed. She had a sort of flowy motion that also attracted notice, not to mention the fact that she was their candidate for a race SOPS had had a lot of success in. They had lost it last season, but before that the Filly and Mare Turf had been won by SOPS for four years straight. Mage looked to continue the tradition of winners. She would probably be the longest shot on the board because her record was not overly impressive, just scarily consistent. But they had a number of advantages that the press had not even considered.

For one thing, Amber noted, ten furlongs was one of the two distances that Mage preferred - the other distance was nine furlongs. For another, Mage was coming into the Breeders Cup off of a win in the Beverly D. Handicap. She liked the Wire’s turf track, as was shown by her successes her. And consistency throughout the season suggested Mage didn’t lose form easily. She was well trained, well conditioned and had a very close bond with her rider. She had more heart than all the field put together in Amber’s opinion and was truly one of the most underrated turf horses in the country. If Amber had her way, Mage would be acknowledged as a quiet champion. As it was, the mare from unknown background attracted eyes only by those who recognized the potential in this mare. And this mare, unlike some horses, had talent that came from heart instead of pedigree. It made Amber smile some more, and she sang about that to Mage as they accelerated to canter, and then a gallop.

Mage could transition from pace to pace with no effort at all, and so smoothly that before Amber knew it they were flying down the backstretch at a steady gallop. The mare was a hunter, and she settled with the patience of one into a good pace. She would not need much to get sharp for the race, but Amber felt like working some bottom into the mare in order to burn off her incessant energy. A mile workout with two furlong pick-up would do the trick. Mage had plenty of stamina and time to recover for the Breeders Cup after this. This would only help her, especially if they kept gliding at the current pace. Mage looked smooth as she clipped off her fractions, happy as she accelerated slightly once they hit five furlongs. Contentedness swam through Amber, and she kept up the steady song as they completed seven and looked to increase the pace even more.

They hit the final two furlongs and Amber knew it was time. She said go and Mage responded, digging down and launching off of her hindquarters into the chase. She ran down her imaginary prey, all the while with a predatory gleam and feral enjoyment in her eyes, and Amber continued to sing to encourage her onwards, even through her own joyful smile. Mage was a beautiful mover, truly she was, all floaty motion. Her stride was energy efficient and precise. She didn’t exude power like other horses, merely energy, and as she completed the final two furlongs in good time and pulled up afterwards Amber was struck by how impressive the mare truly was.

Here was a potential winner of a Breeders Cup race. Here was a horse who had proven herself against the best, perhaps only on isolated occasions but all the same against the best. Here was a horse with the most heart of any horse Amber was riding right now. And she was heading into her final start, the final time she would race down this stretch at the Wire and seek victory. Amber resolved then, even as she leaned down to bury her head in Mage’s mane briefly and give her a well deserved hug, even as a single tear leaked from one of her eyes, that Mage would run the best race of her life and maybe, just maybe, take home the victory she deserved for all that she meant to her rider.