Carry On My Wayward Son

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Carry On My Wayward Son 

Passion Heart and Andrew Martin 



"Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Ah
Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher, but I flew too high"
Carry On My Wayward Son - Kansas

Ally and Imp had to be placed on opposite sides of the barn for more than one reason, A. Ally was so incredibly pissed that the sight of Imp was enough to make her want to rip the mare apart, B. Imp was constantly trying to provoke Ally, C. Ally was a butt anyways, and D. Ally strongly disliked losing by small margins as of late. Blowout wins against some of her workmates only seemed to quench her thirst for a victory slightly. It was like the mare knew when the win was genuine and when it was just a everyday workout. Ally wasn’t stupid, anyone who worked at Grayson Meadows learned that very quickly.

So her short temper, and near inability to be handled had caused quite an issue around the barn. Ally had been throwing herself at anyone who dared to walk past her stall with her teeth bared at ears flattened against the back of her skull. Any ounce of sweetness Ally had in her was buried under a lot of anger and way too much energy, although god knows how she’d gotten it, seeing as all she did all day was pace in her stall, spend at least an hour romping around and bucking in her paddock, and destroying her workmates every chance she got on the track.

After Ally’s impressive show of heart and clear desire to still run, Tanner had decided to send her to the Dubai World Mile. The distance was a step back from the Breeders’ Cup, but that also meant that Ally could run faster and last the whole mile with plenty of energy left in the tank to hold off anyone who dared to try and close on her.

There was only three horses entered at the moment, both were far more credible than Ally. As a matter of fact, for the first time a long time, she was likely to be the longest shot on the board. As a matter of fact comparing Passion Heart’s record to the likes of Paranormal Hunter and Innocent Passion, one may laugh. On paper, Ally had no chance to win. However, this was horse racing, and just because you had a great pedigree and a formidable record to go with that didn’t give you the win. It was the heart, and the guts that got you past that finish line.

So Ally wasn’t a blue-blood, she was an unknown, a horse who no one would have bothered to take a second glance at in March of Year 14. Ally was a grade five undercard horse with a so-so pedigree and a grand total of 3 wins. In 18 starts Ally had placed out of the money eight times in her whole career. So when she flew down the stretch on Green Horse Fields’ turf track on that fourth week in May Grayson Meadows’ knew that they’d stumbled upon something that could turn out to be great. Something clicked with Ally, and she never looked back after that, and in a matter of seven months Ally had made the incredible leap from a Grade Five unknown, and forgotten undercard horse to a very well known and feared name on the track. The ebony daughter of Heart of Stone and Passionate Ruler had won a grand total of nine races in Year Fourteen and she was just getting started.

Back when Grayson Meadows had purchased the mare as a broodmare interest, Ally had been an out-of-shape, pissed off animal. In her first few works with Andrew up in the irons Ally had launched Andrew a grand total of seven times and she wasn’t even getting started. Today you wouldn’t even think she was the same animal, as a matter of fact, the only way that you could tell she was the same horse was by her incredibly malicious personality. She’d looked great before the Breeders’ Cup, but now she looked even better. Ally was pure muscle and speed, she breathed horse racing. She was sitting on a big run, everyone just knew it too. Three loses was all it took before she rattled off two consecutive wins that launched her as one of the biggest threats in the Breeders’ Cup. Both of them HOTY races and one of them she took down The Devil’s Hourglass and Night Goddess.

Ally was a brilliant animal, and three very very narrow losses were going to add up to either a very very narrow win soon, or a total blow out. A tour de force. She was a mare made of darkness and Grayson Meadows knew their dark horse could in fact pull off the upset on two horses that on paper she should never beat. Two horses that are looking for their fairytale ending, but they weren’t going to get it, not without a fight. There was no easy win in this race, there wasn’t it was going to be the horse who had the most guts, the most heart, the most anger.

Steve, Sam, Andrew and Aaron had woken up early that morning just for the sole purpose of getting Passion Heart ready for her final work before the Dubai World Mile. Andrew had been given the task of distracting Ally, Aaron the task of placing and tightening the saddle, Sam the job of holding her, and Steve got the fun job of wrapping the mares legs. Of course this method seemed to work until Ally figured it out. She walked all over everyone, and snapped her jaws malevolently at them. Her ears were slicked to the back of her head and she acted as if every time they touched her offended her very deeply. One would think if Ally enjoyed running so much that she may have enjoyed the preparation before she went out because that meant she was going to work. However, Ally wasn’t a normal horse and she rather hated everything leading up to the work and hated every moment until she was out of that gate.

She slammed her foot into the ground and propelled it in Steve’s general direction and all four of them snapped at the mare. Bridling her was quite the challenge. Ally tossed her head and snapped at everyone, nearly rearing up as they tried for the umfteenth time. However, as many things go with Ally she eventually accepted the bit and allowed them to slide her brown bridle over her coal black ears.

Aaron and Andrew quickly made their way out of the stall followed by Sam and Steve who held Ally from each side. “Well, forty-five minutes guys, I do believe that is a new record.” Steve commented, he and Sam pulling down on Ally in an attempt to keep her from rearing up.

“It’s like pulling teeth to get her to do anything,” Aaron said rubbing her wrist over once, a angry red mark was beginning to swell there. Not everyone who deals with the likes of Ally gets out unscatched.

Andrew walked over to Ally and Aaron gave him a leg up while Steve and Sam held Ally in place, which was a far more challenging task than it should have been.

Aaron patted Andrew’s leg once he was all situated on Ally’s back. The black mare pranced sideways and flung her head up as if she was severely offended when Steve and Sam refused to let her advance forward. “Don’t fall off,” Aaron smirked.

Andrew rolled his eyes, it had been awhile since Ally had launched him, but there always was the chance that today would be the day she did. He could feel her wound up energy under him as she twitched uncontrollably and constantly shifted her weight. She slammed her teeth down on her bit and was already beginning to froth at the mouth.

“Wish me luck,” he said and he let her trot out onto the sand track. Ally had done nothing but run over the sand since her last start in the Breeders’ Cup and she seemed to take to it just as well as the turf.

The black daughter of Passionate Ruler and Heart of Stone stepped onto the track in the early morning. The sun illuminated orange off of her dark black coat. This mare pranced and squealed with a purpose, she reared, bucked. She was something special.

She was as black as night and her heart was just as black. But this mare had something that set her apart from so many others, she possessed something in a very large quantity that was a rare find in many horses. Passion and Heart. Two simple words that seem to mean so little but so much at the same time. Two words. And as it happens, those same words made up her name. Passion Heart. And she did nothing but live up to that name.

Andrew pushed Ally into a trot and then an easy canter, her neck arched beautifully and she tugged on the bit, wanting, begging to go faster, but Andrew didn't let her. They'd been practicing the art of patience with her for over a month and although it irritated Ally to no end, it appeared that it may have started to work in her favor. Her explosive amount of speed was becoming something harder to control, getting her to rate had worked in her favor during the Breeders’ Cup. They'd been making her work a little slower and then blowing her out in the stretch. Ally was capable of stepping off a little and conserving her energy for more worth-while things, like winning.

She caught sight of the gate and Andrew was praying that the gate schooling they'd done for weeks now her just the slightest. His shoulder was finally back to normal, before the breeders cup she’d reared up and he'd accidentally smacked his shoulder on one of the many metal bars in the gate. So when he'd slowed her down to a walk and slowly approached the gate, and Ally stopped right before she was in the gate. He could feel her muscles aching to run, but she seemed to be questioning if she actually wanted to run that badly. He lightly tapped her rear end with his whip and she jumped a few inches off of the ground. She still stood there, and after a little urging from the assistant starters, Ally gated. Andrew waited for her to freak out, rear up, buck him off, possibly kill him, but she didn't. By the regular request she wasn't in the gate for more than a second before she flew out of it and her work had begun.

Andrew held her back and allowed her to settle in at the rail. He looked between her ears and watched the gray/tan colored san disappear beneath her with every stride she took. He could feel her hooves sink deeper into it, but she didn’t seem to much mind.

He smiled slightly, as she tugged on the reins, asking for more run but he didn't give it to her. She stopped asking and her could feel her attention focus and shift over to her running. Her rhythmic thu-dump was music to his ears. He couldn't imagine a sound more beautiful, he loved the sport of kings and in his short riding career he considered himself lucky to be able to be on a horse like this. Push button, determined, and so full of heart it made it impossible not to love her despite her many flaws.

The World Mile was looking to be more pace heavy with Ally being the frontrunner and Innocent Passion a preceeder, the race was more than perfectly set up for Paranormal Hunter to take it. So that was why Ally would be holding back, she would dictate the pace and Innocent Passion could pressure her as much as she wished, Ally wasn’t going to set a suicidal pace. She was going to set a sensible pace and unleash her incredible turn of foot in the stretch and hold off Paranormal Hunter and Innocent Passion. Of course that’s if the race played out like it should.

Ally continued her descent down the back stretch and into the final turn, where Andrew let her have more of her head and she started to rapidly pick up her momentum. Her eyes were dark orbs lit with the fire of determination. She was just waiting for Andrew to let her go and do what she did best. Run.

Her breaths were even, easy, she hadn't broken much of a sweat at all, however the cooler day could be the cause of that as well. Ally started to tug on the reins again, begging for Andrew to let her go early but he kept her in check and didn't give her anymore rein.

He admired Ally's constant begging to go faster, move quicker, to become better. Through her highs and lows she always persevered. She was the Seabiscuit of Y14 and They were going to make sure the world knew she wasn’t done yet. He desperately wanted her to win the World Mile, it was redemption, it was the win she hungered so much for. He wanted it for her, he didn't think anyone else deserved it as much as she did, but if she didn't, it didn't dampen his view of her at all. He saw Ally as the horse all race horses aspire to be, strong, beautiful and above all a Champion. She was the rags to riches horse that was going to be remembered by everyone simply for her bid to make the grade five to grade one leap. She may have failed, but she still persevered out of it she didn't go back to her old ways like he'd feared so many times. No she came back stronger. She only had one chance at the Breeders' Cup, that was the truth, and she’d blown it, but she didn’t totally blow it, she had only lost by the smallest whisker on Imp’s nose.

She hummed beneath him with energy and excitement of the stretch approaching, and he knew she was ready to fire her incredible speed down the stretch and he wasn't going to push her unless he knew she was slacking, but he knew she would never.

Just like that, the stretch opened, Andrew shook the reins and Ally kicked it into high gear, flying flawlessly over the sand. She dug her heels into the sand and made each stride larger, faster. She relished in her power, her strength, her speed. Nostrils flaring, muscles rippling, she moving like a tremendous machine. Poetry in motion, that's what she was. And Andrew sat there on her, not moving a muscle to push her, this was all Ally and her determination to win, she understood the importance of this moment, and she wasted no time in using the opportunity to better herself. She flew past the wire putting in another solid, bullet work.

There was little question, Ally was ready. She wanted that win, she wanted it badly and Andrew wanted it just as badly. However, racing wasn’t always about winning, it was about the heart put in to cross that finish line.

Two words. Passion and Heart. That characterized her perfectly, and there wasn’t a single horse that could take that away from her. She was the dark horse among those filled with light. She was the horse that was going to destroy and devastate her foes. She was going to make them remember those words. Passion and heart. And those words would forever be burned into their minds, they would never forget those two words that the black mare burned into their thoughts for eternity. Passion and heart.