Post by alicekcrose on Jun 3, 2012 1:10:40 GMT -5
Alice and Isa work for the Winter Cup.
Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. That's the exact words I said when I went to look out the window this morning, after hearing there was rain due over night... except for it wasn't rain... there was foot deep snow. Fortunately, the dirt track was salted, so the snow didn't settle... that's a shame for the turf track though... I'd have to work Romeo over the synthetic surface at my home track. Isa was ready for the Winter Cup. The only entrant in it was the horse we beat in the Hyperactive Stakes... the one, the only, Knight Rosseau. I was shocked that my small two-year-old colt could beat the big Triple Crown threat of Year 10... only, he didn't race.
The snow flurried to the ground in heaps. I wrapped up warm in my wax jacket and thick boots. I walked down to the barn and I walked in. Morning boys and girls! I shouted. The sudden shuffle of hooves in the straw and the whinny of Danny caused a stir, and they all started whinnying. Even the barn cat meowed. I walked over to Isa, and stroked his soft nose. I took his tack in and whipped it on before leading him out and mounting. On the entry to the track, Isa walked through the soft snow. It was like slow motion.
I wanted Isa to be Grade 3 by the end of the year. He was definitely going that way so far, with five wins under his belt. If he could win the Winter Cup and the Risorgimento Derby, we would have a whopping seven wins! He was looking like he could do it... but would he fall at the final hurdle against Fire Dancer again? It wasn't likely, I wasn't going to let him. My little Grade 4 colt, the only created two-year-old currently to get this far as a two-year-old. He walked onto the track and suddenly everything was real time again. The colt walked in circles and we walked very energetically towards the gate.
As we continued to walk, Isa spooked, and broke into a soft canter. I let him canter, and pulled myself up. I patted him. Woah, easy boy. I stroked the colts neck. I slowed him back down his paces as we got to the gate. Isa hated the gate with a passion. No matter how hard we tried, he would NOT have any of it. They blind folded him and walked him in to the gate. He stood there. I had my hand on the blind fold, and when the work started, I took it off and let him run.
He began to make the decent on the five furlongs ahead of us and I niggled at him, pushing him even more and more. He stretched out and went two furlongs in twenty one flat. His stride covered the ground and I pushed my hands up his neck, working him hard. The colt stretched out and as we came into the home stretch, he began to listen more. He let out a bellowing whinny and I pushed him more and more, my arm reaching long lengths. My crop rose and fell on his rump and he came under the wire... fifty three seconds flat. A whole second faster than our work for the Novizio Derby. Good boy, I said, patting him.