silver hearts

[Cruisey]

SILVER SERENDIPITY && DEVON BLACKTHORN

SILENT HEART && JOHNNY GARNER

Now that most of the Firestone horses had run a few races, it was time for a few late-comers to the Y15 season to get going. In today’s turf workout, Silver Serendipity was out for her first start in the Unicorn Horn Turf Sprint, a field full of horses she had run against plenty of times. Although it was a field of horses who had probably run at least once this season, Demi was hot off of a 3rd place in the BC Filly & Mare Turf Sprint. Meanwhile, it was newly turned 3-year old Silent Heart’s first race on the grass. After a not-so-successful season on the dirt, Carter decided to transition the mare over to the turf in hopes that her dual-surface preferences leaned towards the grass side of things.



Demi and Heather both tugged on the reins, raring to go. The older filly was a little more patient, not trying too hard to get her head away from Devon’s grip. Heather stayed relatively calm, but the feeling of a new surface on her hooves got her dancing. They started on their warm up lap, going from a walk, to a trot, eventually to a slow canter, keeping almost perfectly side by side the entire time. Demi was in excellent form, taking everything in stride. There wasn’t much to say about the gray mare because she was on top of everything already. There was a noticeable change in Heather’s running style when she cantered beside Demi. When she was on the dirt, her strides looked choppy and disfigured, whereas when you looked at her running beside the seasoned master, she looked more at home and natural.



Once they had reached the gates, it didn’t take them long to load, both horses being relatively easy to handle. Soon the bell rung across the track, the magnetic doors releasing their hold on each other. Their run was six furlongs, of which both horses liked to run at or near the front so pace was really front heavy. Heather being the miler, she had more stamina to keep her lead at the front. After a bit, they were constantly swapping who had control of the lead between them as they made their way towards the backstretch. That was when Devon and Johnny really asked them to go, urging them into a much faster speed.



Both horses were flat out, the disadvantage of working a sprinter and a miler was that the miler didn’t know how to run sprinting distances. If the workout was any longer, Heather would have edged out the gray horse. The only thing that stopped Heather from keeping the lead and coming across the finish line in front was Demi’s experience and the lack of running room. Devon placed the filly just that tiny bit behind during the sprint right until the very end, taking the younger bay over by a head. Even though the workout was short, Carter wanted a feel of how Heather would run on the turf. He wasn’t worried about Demi since he knew she would rebound from a bad race fairly quickly, whereas Heather would stay in that slump. It seemed to him that Heather preferred the turf over the dirt, and that’s where he would find out during race day.