New Kid on the Block [Open]

[merganser]

Chicago Blues and Nathan Correia

The Chicago crew had recently arrived in town and, figuratively speaking, set up shop at Green Horse Fields. The main base of action was still in the Chicago suburbs, but a change of scenery was hardly a bad thing. So far, only two horses had been brought in and Chicago Blues was one of them. Several hours in a trailer plus several more in a stall hardly suited the bay colt. His rider was lounging around and vaguely thought about getting something to drink and eat. Nathan had barely even opened a nearby refridgerator before some little kid tapped him on the shoulder.

"Sir, are you Mister Nathan Carria?"

"It's Correia, kid. Yeah, that's me."

"Some guy wants you at Barn 5. I think he said his name was Mackrel. He said he'd pay me five dollars if I gave you the message."

"His name is John Merkel. That's quite a bit of money for a young kid like you. Anyways, what's the message?"

"Hey! Don't call me little! I'm a big boy! I'm nine years old! See?"

With that, the boy held up nine fingers and made Nathan count them several times.

"The message is...uh...you need to get to Barn 5 ready to eker-excer-exercise! with some guy named Jack. That make any sense?"

"I hear ya'. Jack's probably hatin' his life right now. Poor boy. One last thing before you go. If you see a guy named Victor Conaway, tell him to get on Lady. You'll know him by the green streaks in his hair. Here's a buck for your troubles."

"Gee, thanks Mister. I'll be sure to tell him! You said his name was Vikter Cunway?"

"Yeah, that's close enough."

Once the boy had left, Nathan kicked the refridgerator, cursing his luck. He had to ride the crazy horse on an empty stomach. He stormed out of the cool room and hiked in the direction of Barn 5. The Merganser Thoroughbreds banner was tacked up on the outside wall. The gold print stuck out against the black background. Correia whisteled asbsently as he entered, hardly taking notice of his surroundings. He nearly ran head first into John Merkel.

"There you are, Nathan! I was starting to wonder what had happened. I've already tacked up ol' Jack. Get your helmet and boots on and meet me outside. We'll start with the turf track. Go on, get!"

Nathan quickened his stride and rushed to pull his boots on and jam the helmet on his head. He almost sprinted out the barn to meet Mr. Merkel.

A few minutes later, Nathan Correia was sitting astride Chicago Blues and walking him in the direction of the track. His feet were out of the stirrups and for the most part, horse and rider were doing nothing extraordinary. A few strides from the track, Nathan halted his horse and put his feet in the stirrups. He walked Jack out on the track and gave him a moment to look around. It looked pretty deserted and Nathan had secretly wished that there would be some competition. He couldn't think of a better way to let Jack run besides testing out his speed against another horse. He trotted up and down the back stretch letting the horse stretch out. He pulled Jack up in front of his trainer and waited for some indication to let the bay colt run.

(I swear this looked shorter when I typed it.)

[archibald]

broadway ,

Eli removed his glasses, replacing them with a pair of contact lenses for now, they were a load easier to deal with when he had to go do a ride.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You should know that I know what do with her by now,” he spoke into the phone held by his ear, rolling his eyes in response to the answer he got on the other end of the phone.

Probably if it were any other trainer besides Penn, Eli would have gotten a mouthful back for that, but he had been riding the man’s horses for years now. He had actually gotten him his job at Close, so he must have some confidence in his abilities, even if he didn’t voice it that often. Not that he spoke that much to begin with, he wasn’t a very big talker. There was beeping on the other end of the phone a few moments later, another thing that didn’t surprise him, Penn wasn’t very big on what was considered a polite ending of a conversation.

He headed out to the stable area, helmet swinging idly in one hand. Broadway had her head stuck over the door to her stall, as expected, she always did her best to get whatever attention she could when people walked past. The filly’s trainer was out of the state at the moment, hence the phone call telling him what to do with her while he wasn’t there to watch. Which also left Eli with the job of tacking the horse up, but that didn’t particularly bother him at all. It was a relatively easy job to do, even when the filly spooked badly at the sound of a hoof pick skittering across the stone pavers that lined the stable aisle when Eli accidentally dropped it, although she calmed down fairly quickly afterwards. Surprising really, seeing as though she was a rather touchy horse who didn’t calm down easily again after getting herself all worked up like that.

Eli led Broadway out to the track, mentally running through her workout in his head. Preferable, Penn had asked, was to find someone to run with, it would do the horse good to get some more practice running with other horses, since she was so prone to deciding everything was terrifying, but it wasn’t looking promising as he made his way to the track, it seemed pretty quiet down here.

But once the pair got down to the track itself, he spotted another horse down there, just as its rider halted it in front of who he guessed was its trainer. Well, maybe they wouldn’t mind exercising the horses together, it wouldn’t hurt to ask. He stopped Broadway near them, jamming the helmet on his head and doing it up with one hand.

“Hey,” he called a greeting to the other two males there, gathering up the filly’s reins, and looking at her with a sigh before swinging himself up into her saddle with a small degree of difficulty without a hand up, luckily she was fairly good when it came to standing.

“Mind if we join? Would do this girl some good,” he continued, starting to circle the filly slowly, just to give her something to do so she wouldn’t get bored with standing there.

[merganser]

"John, what do you want me to do with him? There's not a soul in sight and it's been days since he last ran against anybody."

"Shut up, I'm thinking."

"Fine, fine, but Jack's not going to put up with waiting for too long. I know his antics by now."

"Watch it, Correia! You keep back talking me and I'll pull you off that horse. You will hold Jack there as long as I need him to stand and you will do so without complaint. No. Further. Questions."

Nathan sighed and let his eyes wander the track. If only Jack ran best on dirt, there'd be plenty of competition. He thought that Victor was lucky. Lady liked dirt. He sighed and looked down at his horse's neck. A deserted track was boring. Boring for the non-observant, anyways.

Nathan Correia picked his head up at the sound of approaching hoof beats. When did they get on the track? Nathan wasn't exactly known for being keen on his environment. The other guy was riding a pretty black horse a few inches shorter than Jack.

"Hey. You are?"

Nathan didn't notice his heavy Chicago accent, but most people who weren't from Illinois did. The jockey also had a scewed perception of Illinois geography. According to him, anywhere north of Chicago was Northern Illinois and anywhere south of Chicago was Southern Illinois. John Merkel was from East-Central Illinois and didn't like the Chicago people proclaiming that their trainer was from Southern Illinois. Indiana, where Chicago Blues was born, was that look-alike state by the lake. Michigan was that other state by the lake. Wisconsin was that state where you could do anything and nobody cared. There weren't any states south of Illinois and Iowa was noexistant. There was only one body of water and that was The Lake. Nathan has more or less assumed that from any point anywhere, going east (or was it west?) would take you to The Lake.

"I'm Nathan and this Chicago Blues officially, but I just call him 'Jack'. That guy over there is John...Merkel. He's kind of running the show at my place ever since the owners went on vacation to Arizona for a week. What barn are you from? Me an' John an' Jack work fro Merganser Thoroughbreds. I'm not really sure who or what 'Merganser' is. I just know that it's not the owner's name. I don't think it is anyways. Hey, John! What's the owner's name?"

"I can't believe you, Nathan! How on earth can you not know your employer's name? William Parks is paying you a good salary as well. As for the merganser, they're the water birds you insist on calling 'ducks'. The Parks keep a nice breeding colony of them on their property. It's a pet project of Mrs. Jennifer Parks. If you want to join us, that would be fine with me. Chicago Blues could do with a bit of competition. Seven furlongs. Nathan, take it easy on Jack. You're training. This isn't a big stakes race. If he doesn't seem to be his usual self, pull him up. I'd rather be too cautious with that horse than too hard."

(Lots of random dialogue. I'm mostly trying to work out the personalities of Nathan Correia and John Merkel.)

[archibald]

broadway ,

Broadway eyed the other horse off tentatively, probably trying to figure out whether he was going to try push her around or not. She was definitely better around other horses than she was with people, probably due to how her mother had been overprotective of her as a foal. As it was, it was difficult trying to get new people to work with the filly, it took her a long time to get used to new people. It just so happened that both Penn and Eli had worked with her mother, so they had been two of the very few people who had even been allowed to get near Broadway after she was born.

He momentarily took his focus off the filly when one of them answered, looking up to find the source of the voice.

“Eli, Eli young,” was his answer, not really elaborating on anything yet. Or perhaps he just never really considered giving any more detail than that, he himself being the sort of person who didn’t worry about the details unless he was asked, after all, not everyone wanted the whole run down on who a person was when you first spoke to them. And he wasn’t even sure if he was going to be riding with them that morning anyway, so there was no point until he figured that part out.

Eli pulled Broadway up, stopping her as he listened to the other rider’s almost breathless spiel, a crooked grin tugging slightly at the corners of his mouth. And he thought that he could be a chatterbox when he had half the mind to be. Not saying it was a bad thing, he liked it actually. It could be a pain to be in a conversation where you were the only person bothering to contribute much to it.

“This is Broadway, sorry if she’s a bit shy of you, she’s not a very people friendly person, but she’ll be fine with Jack near her. We’re from Close Racing, normally her trainer would be here too but he’s out of state for a race meet,” he answered, adjusting the filly’s reins slightly so they were more comfortable to hold, and more comfortable for her too. She was still eyeing off Nathan and Jack somewhat sceptically, well, as much as a horse could look at something with scepticism. He didn’t doubt that she would decide that it wasn’t going to be a problem soon though, usually she was good with other horses on the track.

[merganser]

John Merkel, who had previously been leaning against a fence straightened up when the new rider introduced himself. He kept one eye locked on his own jockey but didn't ignore the newcomer. His jockey was shifting a bit nervously, but tried to hide it as well as he could. Nathan was quite the talker and enjoyed the crowds, but he wasn't the most trusting of people no matter how ironic it seemed. John was more than happy to let the newcomer race his jockey and one hand slipped into his coat pocket feeling for the stopwatch that he kept on him all the time. Even as his own jockey rambled on, Merkel made sure that he could see both horses. Jack was pretty laid back around other equines, but he wasn't sure about the other one. It was a nice horse to look at, but racehorses were not just for looks. Racehorses had personality just like people, or so Merkel insisted.

"Mister Young, I was just giving Nathan the rundown of what I want him to do. Jack shouldn't act up and if he does, there's usually a very good reason. I don't know Broadway, so it's up to you to make a final decision as to whether or not you want to join us in exercising today. He's running seven furlongs. Nathan may be my jockey, but is Broadway is the faster horse, then so be it. Don't give Nathan any slack. Nice filly, by the way. I'll enjoy seeing her run. Nathan, walk Jack over there an' I'll start you." The trainer pointed off to an area a couple meters away and Nathan obediently complied, but less than pleased to do so.

"Boy! Quit sulking! You've got a raincloud hangin' over ya an' I don't want to get wet!" Nathan muttered something about his trainer having X-ray vision or some other power.

Jack was his usual relaxed self. He liked the filly even if she didn't like him. He really wanted to show off for her, but there was also the job at hand. If the leader wanted him to run his heart out, well, there was no disrepecting the leader. He waited quietly for the signal to go even though his feet were itching to run and to fly over the smooth turf. John pulled his stopwatch out of his coat and reset the hands. The wat was old and it had needed several repairs over its long life, but it never broke completely. Some old friend of Merkel's had even purchased a fancy case for the watch, but the case was sitting up on a shelf back at the Merganser Thoroughbreds headquarters. Mostly, John kept the watch safe in a pocket.

"Alright boys! Three...two...one...start!"

[archibald]

broadway ,

Eli hadn’t always been as comfortable around strangers, years of going in and out of foster care and back into the care of his parents had left him somewhat wary of people, since not all of the places he had been were exactly the nicest. But as he got older he had learned that not everyone was like that, and it had made it easier. He knew a lot of people didn’t have the same luck when it came to that sort of thing. So talking to Nathan and the horse’s trainer was quite a comfortable experience, as it was.

He turned his attention to the older man as he started speaking, keeping an eye on Broadway, although she seemed pretty relaxed at the moment, the presence of two people she didn’t know at all wasn’t appearing to bother her too much, yet. “She’s not very bossy as it is, so she shouldn’t lash out at him, no worries there...and don’t worry, I definitely won’t be giving anyone any slack,” he answered, giving both Merkel and Nathan a good natured grin. He had been doing this sort of thing since he was sixteen, and at twenty two now he wasn’t a jockey who thought their experience made them superior, but he wasn’t going to away an easy ride.

He nudged Broadway forward, following Nathan and Jack out to the track and to the point where the colt’s trainer had pointed to as their starting point. She didn’t complain or fuss at the movement, the track wasn’t something she was afraid of, mostly during training sessions, although she tended to be a lot more flighty on actual race days, the extra noise and crowd seemed to intimidate her a little. As long as it didn’t mean she hurt herself before she even got onto the track working herself up over them, it wasn’t too much of a problem though.

Broadway didn’t stand completely still when Eli did stop her on the line, however, knowing what was coming she was getting a tad excited, and he had to keep her in a firm but gentle hand while he waited for the trainer to be ready for it, ready to let her have her head and go at any moment. His ears strained for the trainer’s voice, focusing solely on the race ahead of them, and not much else.

"Alright boys! Three...two...one...start!"

At that, he let Broadway go, feeling the power of her muscular, racer’s body fly out underneath him.

---

Apologies for the wait, I've been really busy. I'm also not fussed on the outcome of this race either xD