Post by archibald on Mar 29, 2012 22:53:38 GMT -5
broadway & chicago blues
“See if you can get Jack there to move his butt and actually run properly today, won’t you? Me and Broadway are getting tired of beating him, the lazy sod,” Eli called over to Jo, all good naturedly of course. It was common knowledge that Jack could be a fairly lazy horse... he could run well, when he had someone on his back that knew where his accelerator was, and pretty much anyone who had ridden the young stallion so far hadn’t gotten very far on him. But Mitch had asked Jo to ride him today, as she was one of the more experienced jockeys who worked for Close, so hopefully she’d manage it.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that Eli,” Jo answered, flashing the younger jockey a grin, nudging Jack into a slightly faster pace with her heels as they got closer to the starting gate, wanting to keep him going before he started slipping back into a more relaxed state and would be harder to get going again later. Soon they had both reached the gates, the experienced stewards quickly loading both horses, although Broadway took a little more convincing than Jack did, although she was a lot better than she had been only a year before, now that they had worked on getting her more used to them.
Soon after both jockeys were ready to go, the gate bell sounded, and the gates flew open, both horses breaking from them. As usual, just wanting to get out of the gates as fast as she could, Broadway broke faster than Jack did, and stayed half a head in front of the slightly older horse for a few furlongs, it was certainly a closer match than it had been lately, when the black filly would be out half a length in front of him the whole time instead. Nearing the end of the eight furlong sprint, Jo really set on the pace with Jack, the bay horse quickly taking over the lead, and heading over the finish length half a length ahead, despite a solid rally from the other pair.
She slowed Jack down after they had crossed, Broadway and Eli pulling up alongside them after a few moments, turning her head to grin over at the other jockey. “I told you so.”