Post by Cruisey on Mar 18, 2015 20:28:14 GMT -5
SPEAK EASY && JOHNNY GARNER
WHISPERING MELODY && TALIA SMITH
Whispering Melody and Speak Easy, two Year Fourteen encouragement award winners had stepped onto the track for their early morning workout. Talia and Johnny sat aboard the two respectively, already anticipating the workout ahead of them. After a respective third in the Wood Memorial Stakes, Sonny was now gearing up for the rest of the Triple Crown prep races. The black colt was one win away from grading up, and after the Blue Grass Stakes, Carter would send him in an undercard in hopes for him to grade up before the Florida Derby, the last prep race before the prestigious Kentucky Derby in May. Johnny was excited for the colt’s performance, hoping that he could beat the rivals that he had quickly made ever since last year. In regards to Wendy, Carter was sending her in her first HOTY race of the year, the Davona Dale Stakes. It was technically a Triple Tiara prep race, but Wendy proved to have the class and style to run it. If worse comes to worse, Carter would scratch her and send her into an undercard to grade up.
They moved along the dirt track to use the starting gate. Sonny was being himself, a lazy attitude with a side of prancing on his toes in excitement. Johnny guided Sonny into the second slot with the help of the gate handler. Wendy was a bit more nervous with the gates, wavering a little bit until given encouragement by Talia. After a few moments, Wendy agreed to make her way into the gates. Seconds went by and both horses shifted anxiously before the bell rang and the gates swung open.
Sonny shot forward a split second before Wendy and was placed right at the rail. Wendy didn’t hesitate at being behind the black colt as they travelled through the first turn. They were running six furlongs today, a little bit longer than Sonny had done before but it was a fun challenge of sorts for him. Talia was given instructions to let Wendy travel in front of Sonny to see what he would do in response. It was a race tactic to test both horses to see how they would run in an unusual position. While Johnny held Sonny back, Talia guided Wendy skillfully ahead of the black colt and now held the lead by a head. Wendy’s ears flickered back in confusion as to what her jockey was asking of her, but the bay filly was generally a good listener. The colt tossed his head, infuriated that the filly surged ahead of him. He chewed on the bit, almost running through Johnny’s skillful hands. Turns out the black horse had a little bit of fire in his belly.
All too fast, five furlongs had whipped by and there was only one furlong to go. Sonny felt a sudden urgency as to why he wasn’t in the lead and he almost fell apart at the sight of Wendy picking up speed. With a quick tap on the shoulder by Johnny, the colt took his anger and was off in a blur. The older jockey was almost unseated at the amount of power the black colt put into his run as he grabbed handfuls of mane and crouched down even farther. Talia looked over her shoulder to see a black blur, and cracked the whip onto Wendy’s side. The bay filly flickered her ears in response, swishing her tail as she found another gear. Sonny charged forwards, each stride eating up the ground as he gained distance on Wendy. The finish post was three feet away and Johnny smacked Sonny one more time and the black horse responded. Crossing the wire, it was surprisingly Wendy that got the edge over the colt, only by a nose. If the race was longer, Sonny would have definitely reached the finish faster and more efficiently, but Carter knew that the horse would be out for revenge soon enough.
