Yearning to Live

I Can and I Will

I led Survivor out of the barn after tacking her up. We walked over to Anna, who had White Shadow already mounted. I mounted Survivor and we walked out onto the track together. We agreed to walk a lap since Mady was going to show up late. We lapped once and Mady came jogging up panting and breathing hard. She raised a finger like she was going to say something then just waved her hand off obviously too out of breath to speak. She drew a starting line in the dirt then climbed under the inside rail next to the start. I walked Survivor up to the line and Anna followed suite. Mady caught her breath and gave us the rules. " The point of this race, is to see if Natasha can keep up or pass up Anna and White Shadow. If she can do so, she is eligible to ride in the Preakness for this barn. The track is firm and fast. Tom and I will be clocking both of you, I expect to see a good, fast, clean race. " She finished her rambling of rules and stood in ready position. Gray was fidgety and he circled a couple times before holding still. It was dead silent for a moment. Mady lowered her hand, two clocks ticked, and the race began.

White Shadow paused for a moment and I took advantage of that. I nudged Survivor off and she complied. We sailed off from the start down the stretch. I didn't dare turn my head to see how far behind Anna was. I knew she'd be on my tail. We went into the first turn, slowing up a slight. On the backstretch, we sped up again, tearing up the stretch. Into the final turn, we came up wide. I was quite surprised for a moment. And she plowed through the turn ahead. I gave Survivor quite a bit of rein at the beginning of the stretch. She took the rein extending her stride and neck easily catching up to Gray. I let out a bit more rein as we sailed past Mady and Tom. I stood in the irons and started to ease Survivor up. White Shadow pulled up beside us. We turned our horses back and cantered down the stretch back toward the start. Mady looked quite stunned. Tom had a smug look on his face. Mady raffled off some things before the times. " Anna won. But Natasha was only off by half a length or so. Anna's time was 1:56 and 2/5. Natasha's time was 1:56 and 4/5." All of us were slightly stunned. Those were fast numbers. " And, Natasha did keep up. Natasha, would you like to race Survivor in the Preakness?"