The Horse By The Picket Fence

Chapter 23

"Only a picture can tell the results now."

I hold my breath, the crowd is silent and we wait for the final announcement.

"And the winner is ... Purely Prince!"

The crowd roars and I cheer along with them, Brian looks relieved.

"This was a close one folk, Purely Prince was able to stick his nose out and cross the wire before Gaining On, he is still undefeated and ready to go into the Kentucky Derby."

The crowd cheers again and I make my way down to the winner circle, I rub Prince's nose and accept the trophy. We start to walk back to the barn and Teddy goes to the jockey room.

"You were such a good boy Prince."

Teddy walks in with a huge grin on his face.

"WE ARE GOING TO THE DERBY!"

WE all cheer and Prince whinnies, I knew we could do something I knew I could make him reach greatness because he already has.

***

"You look at me like I know how he going to react," I say glaring at Teddy.

Today Prince will do his commercial and to say the least I was nervous.

"He will be fine, Sam," Brian says in efforts to calm me down, I sigh.

We park outside the beach that had been cleared for the commercial.

"Hello!"

I get out of the truck and am face to face with a short man, he smiles.

"Are you ready?"

"Sure Chuck," I smile and take his hand.

"I talked to you on the phone, we will do any thing he is comfortable with."

I nod my head, "Sounds good."

The grooms unloaded Prince, some of the camera crew walked closer to see him.

"My money will be on him." A man says smiling at me.

"Thank you."

Prince snorts and takes in his surroundings. The grooms take off his blanket and Ace is unloaded next, Prince calms down and I stroke his nose.

"What first?"

"Start him in the water, if you could take off his collar."

I laugh, "Halter Chuck, it is a halter."

"Hey, I am the director, not the trainer, yeah?"

"Sure."

We slide off Prince's halter, and I see they have set up a temporary gate so he won't run off.

"Alright let him do what ever we are just here to capture the moment."

We send Prince off in front of the cameras and at first, he looks confused. When he sees the tide he gets interested and walks closer splashing the water's surface with his hoof. I laugh and he perks his ears up looking back over his shoulder. After a few more hours Chuck decided he got what he wanted and we packed Prince and Ace up and started driving home.

"That went better than expected."

Teddy nods, "I am glad he did not hurt himself."

Brian nods and I sigh but agree.

"At least he seemed like he had fun."

They agree and we drive back in silence.

The next few weeks we let Prince rest and go out in the pasture with Ace, we also did a few runs with him and he was doing great. Prince seemed ready for the Derby so I had him sent to Church Hill Downs, this time Teddy and I sat in first class, which seemed to please him.

"I think he will do great in the Derby," I say starting to get excited.

Teddy nods, "He has been running great."

We unload the plane and pick up our bags, taking a taxi to our hotel. I flop on the bed and read through my messages, a whole bunch of people was excited to see Prince run, I definitely was too. I look a the list of horses who would be running, the odds were these.

Purely Prince 1:3

Kool Kid 1: 6

Flaming Flatwork: 1:7

GoodHeart 1:10

Hintallie: 1:20

Sailing Smooth 1: 25

Peppermintpink 1:31

I'll Return 1: 40

Jinxx: 1:56

There was a knock on the door and I look up. Teddy carefully undoes the bolt and looks through. He muttered something and opens the door, Brian barges through. Worry lines creased his face.

"Brain, is everything ok?"

Brian stays silent and looks at me.

"Brian?" Teddy walks up behind us.

"We have a problem," Brian murmurs and my expression drops.

"What do you mean?"
====================================Hey everyone! Please vote and comment on this chapter so I know what you thought! Some names for the other horse he races would be nice if you could come up with those thanks.  For some reason I like the name Peppermintpink I don't know why 😂.
Any way..... Thanks for reading

~ Luckypaws13