Repeated Fame

Chapter Two--The Pride of Heartland Stables

Weeks passed by with training for Storm's Pride.  And he was coming along great.  As he was almost ready for a race, the team started to look for one.

"Well," Scott said.  "There is a maiden special weight coming up in two weeks at a distance of six furlongs.  He should be ready for that one."

"Well let's enter him," Doug said.  "His training coming along nicely, he should definitely do good."

~•~

"It's a very nice day here at Del Mar Racetrack, and there are some good races today with only two weeks until the FrontRunner Stakes, including a full brother to Chasing The Storm, Storm's Pride, debuting in a maiden special weight at six furlongs in race number one."

Race number one horses were already in the paddock as they were getting tacked up for their race.  Pride wore the same tack as his late brother.  Blue shadow roll, figure eight noseband and the ring bit.  Pretty soon, the jockeys came out to be given a leg up onto their mounts.

Storm's rider, Victor Garcia, came out dressed in the black, blue and white silks of Heartland Stables.  He went over to Pride, who was acting very calm in his paddock stall.  But, he was also being lazy.  Steven, Storm's old groom, basically had to drag Pride out of the paddock stall to walk him around the paddock.

"He seems lazy today," Victor said. 

"I know," Luis said.  "He's never like this in workouts."

Scott soon gave Victor instructions for the race.  But very simple instructions.  Ride him like Storm, as Pride has been wanting to work like Storm every morning.

You could soon hear someone yell the command for riders up, and Victor was given the leg up into Pride's saddle.  Steven then led the colt who was now full of himself and full of energy out to the track.  He was breaking from post number three of five horses.

As they stepped foot on the track, rain started pouring down.  The clouds had been rolling in and finally let loose.  Some of the colts started getting very uncomfortable and even Pride was getting a bit antsy.  But Heartland Stables did not want to scratch due to the rain.  They believed in Pride.  The announcer soon started calling off the names.

"Number one is Important Fame.  Number two is Frost Warning.  Number three is Storm's Pride.  Number four is Jazzy Boy.  And number five is Shared Wisdom."

Once the horses were at the track, the track was completely soaked.  The mud was almost like wet cement, and the rain was still coming down fast and heavy.  But the horses still loaded into the gates.  Important Fame, the dapple gray colt owned by Heartland Stables went in first, and the rest of the field followed in behind him.  And soon, the horses were set and ready.

"And they are off!  Jazzy Boy goes out to lead and Shared Wisdom follows behind him.  It is a gap of two lengths to Important Fame who is trying to break his maiden in his third start.  Storm's Pride follows a length and a half behind his stablemate in forth while Frost Warning is in last.

"The group of two year old colts are now moving for the turn and Jazzy Boy keeps a short lead to Shared Wisdom and Important Fame is starting to close in.  He looks to be a danger as he is coming up fast!  Halfway through the turn and Frost Warning is starting to make a move and Storm's Pride is moving too!

"And they're into the stretch!   The stablemates hook up!  They are stride for stride!  But they weren't for long as Storm's Pride takes off!  And he's opening up!  He's a quarter mile from home and Important Fame is holding off a late run from Frost Warning but Storm's Pride wins his debut in the pouring rain by five lengths!  Important Fame was second followed by Frost Warning, Shared Wisdom and Jazzy Boy."

The team went to go collect their colts but went with Pride to the winners circle.  After the picture was taken, they met Steven back in the barn with Important Fame.

"They both ran great," Scott said.  "The blinkers helped Imp here a lot, but he got beat by the better horse today."

"True," Sara said, nodding her head.

"You guys know what," Luis said.  "Storm's Pride is already the pride of Heartland Stables."