On second thought, being a jockey probably wouldn't be the best idea.
"How are you not freaking out?" I asked, flashing a look at Jack over BD's wide, shining back. He was leaning against the wall of the stall, watching me brush the stallion amusedly.
With the irritating slowness of someone forming words as he spoke, Jack replied, "I've ridden maidens before, so there's no nerves there. You and I are the only ones who ride him, so they can't take me off if I do badly, and they're not expecting much of him anyways. Odds are twenty-to-one. There's no reason for me to be 'freaking out'."
My stomach fluttered. "Twenty-to-one!" I couldn't decide if that made it better or worse. BD turned his regal head and studied me with dark eyes, nosing my elbow. Though it was a gentle gesture, he was still large enough to push me back a step, but only a step. I still stumbled. "What are the other odds?"
"Alehouse is five-to-one, and he's the favorite. Maidens are an uncertain thing." Jack reminded me, deciding to detach from the wall and pick up a brush, making himself useful.
That they were. But I so badly wanted BD to win.
My hands were shaking as I fumbled for my phone to check the time. We were an hour from post- or was it saddling? Maybe I'd gotten the time wrong, we could've missed it by-
"You're emoting," Jack said teasingly, stepping fearlessly behind BD to brush at his silky tail. He peered around the horse to look at me with laughing eyes. I glared back, trying to calm down.
"BD's too smart to listen to my emotions," I countered, setting down my brush. BD was as clean as he was going to get- or was that dust? I picked up the brush again and found a hand on top of mine.
"Anna," I glanced up and met Jack's steady gaze, disconcertingly close. His proximity froze me in place- though I considered us good friends, this was new. "You're getting all worked up for nothing, alright? Go sit down and take a deep breath, I'll finish with Mr. Already-Clean."
"I'm the groom, though!" I protested immediately as he withdrew, catching my breath. Jack responded with a joke.
"Who's the bride, then?"
"Lilac." My mind flashed back to when I first met her, the little joke that had faded over time, and then in consequence to the first time I had met BD. We'd come so far. Just racing was a victory, really. Something in me stilled and my nerves dissipated.
Jack looked confused but laughter exploded from two stalls over. "We've come full circle!" BD pricked his ears and raised his head, then, as a blonde ponytail came bobbing past the stall and emerged over the door in the form of Lilac. "Jack, go get dressed. It's nearly time to head up."
Nevermind. My nerves returned full-blast as Lilac tossed a leadline at me, shining leather shank that did not go with the halter at all. BD tossed his head in protest as I clipped it under his chin, lifting his front feet off the ground, but he steadied at the flick of my hand. By that time Jack had vanished and Ned was fussing over a filly that was going into the eighth race of the day. BD was running number four. So it was Lilac and I that walked slowly out of the barn and towards the saddling area, where other horses and trainers and grooms were milling about. My eyes zeroed in on the favorite, Alehouse, a blood bay that threw his head and reared slightly, hooves clattering on the cobblestone. His eyes were bright and eager, and then they were gone as blinders were pulled over his head. I studied the favorite, noticing his powerful haunches and muscled neck.
"This is his third maiden try. His first one he stumbled badly at the gate and was left behind, but he caught up to the pack and finished a close third, not even winded. His second run he lost by a headbob. Jack's gonna have to watch out for him." Lilac echoed the discussion Jack and I already had. I shook my head.
"BD's never known a race before. The others have experience on him."
Lilac stopped and planted her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at me. "He may have never known a race, but he's also never known defeat."
"Let's not get acquainted, then," I murmured. We resumed our walk, BD taking advantage of my distraction to lunge and nip at Lilac. She batted him back.
"Anna! Pay attention. You're walking a horse, not a dog."
I dragged my eyes away from a large, jet-black horse that positively rippled with muscles and glanced at BD. He studied me back with an unreadable glint to his eyes, tilting his head. Something simmered behind this horse. An explosion.
"Save it for the track, boy."
And he did.
We waded through the saddling area like a morning imbued with mist. Life felt like a stop motion film as I promptly forgot everything seconds after they happened. Then suddenly, in a rush of color, BD was saddled and Jack was on his back and the pony rider was reaching for his lead rope.
"That won't be necessary," Jack said hastily. "He's a problem horse. Just accompany us, please."
The rider, looking as though she'd grown out of her saddle, nodded curtly and wheeled her pony onto the track, BD following like a lion with nowhere better to be.
And I saw Bloodless Day for the first time.
Harsh afternoon sun struck at his coat, hooking its claws into the brown and pulling it out red, wetting the black so it shone like water on glass. He tucked his head as he trotted, flashing a sun-whitened hindquarter as he moved forwards. He was a horse fit for a god, and I was an unworthy servant.
"You did well," Lilac said quietly beside me.
"Thank you," I replied softly, unable to convey the rush of emotion that surged inside of me. No other horse on the track could begin to touch BD- not Alehouse, or the muscular black, or the dappled grey that cast a superior glance towards Lilac and I. Even the lithe chestnut that danced and flashed in the sun like a sun catcher could not compare to my horse.
And so they loaded evenly. BD had drawn fourth gate, out of seven horses. He stood exactly in the middle, just a gleaming dot in the distance now.
The bell rang.
In an explosion of color and strength, seven horses leaped forwards and out of the gate. Dirt flew up in a spray of motion, obscuring the race for the most torturous of seconds before settling again, falling away like a cloak to reveal the race. The chestnut had immediately glued itself to the rail, zipping neatly along, a bee on a warpath, letting the others battle for second place. But I only had eyes for BD.
He was boxed in behind three horses hugging the rail, and already he was fighting Jack. I recognized the raised head and frustratedly uphill gallop he ran with as he struggled to tear past the iron grip and bound ahead. "He's going to wear himself out..." I murmured, gripping the rail.
"No, he's not," Lilac said fiercely. "One of them has to give."
But they didn't. One, two, and then three furlongs had passed. They were almost past the fourth and Alehouse had taken the lead and Bloodless Day was in last place.
"He's making his move," Lilac said suddenly.
If my eyes hadn't been intent on BD before, they were now. Jack had slid him towards the outside rail, so BD was covering more distance in the same time as the other horses. While I had faith in him, this was pushing him to the limits, it had to be. But suddenly he was past the three that conspired to block him and roaring ahead.
He flew.
The other Thoroughbreds ran the way a child played with a door, quickly opening and closing as they tore up the track. But BD lowered his head and his gallop became a heartbeat, a song, a tattoo of rain on a tin roof. It wasn't a gait, it was a speed, and the speed was fast, very fast.
He passed the third horse, then the second, and locked onto Alehouse. There was one furlong left and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry because he was so close, so close, but he couldn't make it.
Then Alehouse slipped from first place to second place, and BD streamlined ahead, a bullet train comfortable in the weight that first place bore upon him.
Bloodless Day had run out of the shadows and into the light.
*****
THE END
Kidding kidding. I'd never do that. Maybe. Except I still have HALF THE BOOK LEFT aha it's really unnecessarily long.
Anyways....
I've created an Instagram account to sort of... track? record? my writing journey, so if you care to follow, it's @that.other.world
And yeah! That's it for my news! Except for my real life BD has been lame for three weeks and ran me over yesterday. Twice. Fun stuff.
Later!
~Iggy