Radioactive

[creativecause]

Radioactive 

Tears of Blood and Aaron Evertt 

Dare To Impress and Alex Shade 

I'm waking up to ash and dust
I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust
I'm breathing in the chemicals
I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus
This is it, the apocalypse
Whoa
I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my systems blow
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Welcome to the new age, to the new age
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, I'm radioactive, radioactive
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, whoa, oh, oh, oh, I'm radioactive, radioactive

This was it, Happy was having his final work before the Dubai World Sprint and his rematch with Forbidden To Fly was coming much quicker than anticipated. The son of Cryin’ Out Loud had run a tremendous race in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint and was coming for Forbidden To Fly guns blazing.

It was a new year, which meant a blank slate for most horses. A new chance to improve, to forget last season and start over. While some may not wish to start over, others are more than happy to see it end and begin again. Well, there was a burning excitement with Happy. This would be his final start of his career and Aaron Evertt planned to make it the race of his life. The race that he could go out with a bang with. The race that he could forever etch his name into history with.

Call it ambitious if you like, but Happy had been a whisker away from beating Mastermind, twice, and then was three quarters of a length away from snatching the Breeders’ Cup Sprint victory from Forbidden To Fly and he’d been the horse who had taken the widest trip the whole way. Happy was becoming a classy sprinter fast and this could be his break, his chance to deny a champion his title, and carve his name forever into the history of horse racing. Not that he hadn’t already.

The race consisted of an interesting blend of horses, Happy’s future date, Midnight Sun. G2 miler type filly Reflected in Water. Sprinting Legend Forbidden To Fly. And finally, Aquatic Addiction. It was truly in Happy’s favor that the race was seven furlongs and it wasn’t an unknown fact that Happy rather liked that distance.

The race was pretty straight forward and the majority of it was likely to be run in the stretch. Midnight Sun would break on top with Reflected in Water to press her to move on quicker, then they’d be followed by Forbidden To Fly, Aquatic Addiction and then, Happy. They were going to try and keep him from running too wide this time around but if they had to they were willing to allow the stallion to go to the far outside to make his bid.

The stretch was going to be the battleground for what could be a great stretch run. Forbidden To Fly vs. Tears of Blood, a rematch. The possibility to upset a fairytale ending for the son of Flying Colors.

Imp on the other hand had another promising season ahead of her, the mare was fresh off of a impressive win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf over the gutsy Passion Heart who would be going up against the likes of Paranormal Hunter and Innocent Passion in the Dubai World Mile.

Imp looked better than ever off of her win, she had her Turf Triple Crown spunk back and was more than ready to pull of a huge upset over some of the best in the business. Her task was a bit more demanding than most trainers would like to throw horses into, but if Imp did indeed pull of the upset, she was adding to her already astounding career. She was one race shy of winning the Turf Triple Crown but redeemed herself in the Breeders’ Cup, now she was out to prove herself again.

The Dubai World Championship offered nothing but the best, all the other entrants were five years old and above and were indeed the best in the business. Y13 Turf Triple Crown winner, Bella Luna. Y15 Classic Place and Y12 Champion Two Year Old Filly, Nightshade. Winter Dawn Treader Cup winner, Red Herring. Y14 True Enough Memorial Stakes Winner, GS Supercharged. This was going to be one hell of a race and there was little doubt about that. And, it was going to be the first meeting between the Y13 and Y14 Kentucky Open and Preakness Champion winners. This was sure to be the race of a century.

However the race had one really big problem, there wasn’t a front runner, that would mess with Red Herring a bit, then Bella Luna and Imp would follow with Nightshade and GS Supercharged likely pulling up the rear. Imp would probably be moving right with Bella Luna the whole way around the track and Alex had been given instructions to follow the Witch Creek mare and watch out for the closers.

Aaron and Alex quickly got mounted up on their rides for the morning and made their way out onto the sand track. Both had been running over it for nearly a week and a half to make sure they were ready and used to the surface, and both seemed to rather enjoy it. They seemed to grip it just as well as any other surface they ran on.

Aaron and Alex ran them through their warm ups taking time to make sure they were nice and lose. Both of them gated without an issue and soon the workout was underway. Imp broke on top with Happy just three quarters of a length behind her, his ears flopped back and forth and Aaron waved the whip to get his attention. Alex looked behind him to see how close Happy and Aaron were and he was a bit surprised to see that Happy was keeping up with Imp this early stage of the work.

Sand flew beneath them and they gobbled up the ground with intense focus. The worked their way down the backstretch and Happy was already beginning to press Imp’s buttons. Alex was having to restrain the black mare and she accepted it but he could feel her aching to really stretch herself out. Happy edged closer and closer and Aaron trusted that the stallion knew what he was doing so she let him start to gain his momentum and he was at Imp’s withers. The final turn was quickly ending and Imp still lead the way. Happy was at her throat and when the stretch opened they dug down into the sand and fought against each other, Happy managed to get his head and than his neck ahead of Imp but the mare came back and they hit the wire together a winner was nearly impossible to determine.