Andrea pushed the button on
her stop watch as Everclear galloped under the wire. His exercise rider stood up in the
stirrups and began to slow the dark bay down. His coat was only slightly damp and he was
still running easily. Which was good, since he’d just breezed the last quarter of a mile
work in 23.8. Johnny leaned over to see the time. "You sure about sending that boy off to
face heavy competition or are you just being sentimental over him."
"Come on, Johnny. You
know me better than to think that." Personally, she wasn’t so sure. The colt’s half
sister Atlantis had come in second last month. Not a resounding defeat by any means, and
Andrea was confident the filly hadn’t peaked too early. In fact, the defeat made her
slightly happier. Atlantis had lost before heading into the Baby Triple crown as well.
Everclear had yet to show any amazing talent, despite being more classicly bred. With any
luck another month or two would be all he needed. Meanwhile there were other horses to watch
work.
Rhapsody was out with her head nearly tucked to her chest as she struggled against
the hold her rider had. The filly seemed to be healing well, but Andrea wasn’t going to
risk her in the March races. She’d run again in April and hopefully tackle the final two
legs of the Baby Triple. Meanwhile Carbon Copy was rallying to try and hold off a challenge
by Hollywood’s Mistake. The filly was being tested in the March Madness stakes while
Atlantis and Glory got a month off. Mistake was pouring it on strong, but as they swept
under the wire Carbon still had her nose in front. Mistake quickly rectified that in the
next stride. Both horses came off the track prancing, a sure sign that they’d enjoyed their
match race.
Miss Lonelyhearts was being schooled on the shorter, turf track over the
chaser fences. He had a tendency to take off too close to the base of the fences and Andrea
wanted to make sure that it was worked on before he moved up a step next month. The colt
definately looked good this year, though, and she was hoping that in a year or two he’d be
ready to sire babies of his own. It was strange to think of her babies siring
babies.
Shaking her head, she handed Johnny the stopwatch. She’d go check on the new
arrivals and the expectant moms and then go work on the breeding paperwork for an hour or
two. This time of year she became more or less nocturnal as constant foal alerts kept her up
all night and then she had to be out to the track by 6 to supervise workouts. A couple of
hours of work and a couple cups of coffee, then sleep she promised herself.