Post by alicekcrose on Jul 13, 2012 4:18:52 GMT -5
Alice and Strictly Royal work for the Unicorn Horn Dirt
We’d won our first race of the year in style, bumping up to five wins and currently in joint second on the leaderboard. Days were young yet, and it was hard to predict how the future for the colt would be, but with some really tough competition coming up in our first ever Unicorn Horn Race, it was time to show what the colt had. I wanted to get him to Grade Three, so we could start taking part in the higher grade races. We’d had a fairly consistent three-year-old season, which was a lot better than the two-year-old season. We were entered in the Unicorn Horn Dirt, for three-year-olds and over on the dirt, over ten furlongs. The current entrants were both Stride Of Perfection entrants… the Grade Four filly, Fire Dancer, and the Grade Two racer, TDI Live This Lie, who placed second in this race last year. TDI Live This Lie is the product of two champion racehorses. Bred by Tropicana Dreams Inc. and then put up for sale in their foal crop, Falsehood was the son of TDI Secrets Of Excalibur and Definite Glory. TDI Secrets of Excalibur was heading for great things and a promising destiny as a champion before getting hurt in an unfortunate accident. Definite Glory is the monster mare we all look out for on the track, as she always poses a huge threat in any race. Racing is in Falsehood's blood, and, therefore, he has the typical personality of a racehorse. Intelligent, analytical, and passionate are the key words that describe this colt. He can understand what's going on around him in a flash and is a quick learner. He can deduce the strategies of others and then his next move in a couple quick seconds before taking that race and running away with it. His analytical side makes Falsehood a deadly opponent, and he knows it too. This sometimes leads to arrogance and hot headedness, but he has learned to stop this stupid attitude when the time is most important and he knows he absolutely needs to listen. His arrogance makes him confident and a very dominant colt. He is not afraid to take risks or be reckless, but he always learns from his mistakes and usually makes good decisions. Falsehood is the king, and he acts as such. All his wishes are to be obeyed, but he's learned to not include human beings - particularly his rider and close friend Amber Black - in the creatures he rules over.
Falsehood is one of those horses that takes the lead and runs away with it. He knows how to modulate his pace, and he's learned that going right for the lead in the beginning is reckless, but he still prefers seeing nothing but open ground in front of his hooves. He does relinquish this lead if challenged overly much, however, as he is not a machine and does not have the strength to sprint straight through ten furlongs. This intelligence makes him a keen opponent, and it makes him hard to beat. If an opponent pushes him, he won't take the bait. He'll remain cool and drift back if he has to. Later on in the race, he'll jam it up a couple of notches and either preserve that lead to the wire or fly past the horses that had taken his lead earlier. Running is a passion for Falsehood, and sprinting to victory is among his favorites when it comes to activities. As he was a front runner, we’d be right up there with him. Fire comes from beautiful bloodlines. Her sire Native Flame was a monster on the track. He was a tall, beautiful bay, and was well known for his monstrous strides and courageous heart. He was a threat even to our Impressario during his racing days, which marks him as a champion. If any horse can be considered a threat to Ario, in our minds, then they deserve high honors. Fire's dam On To Dancing was one of our most prolific broodmares; as it is, Fire is Dancing's last foal. Dancing was the mother of Radiance and On To The Spotlight, both Breeders Cup winners and grade one racehorses. Radiance was a racehorse on the dirt, Onya on the turf, which shows versatility and talent in her producing ability. Fire has a lot to live up to from her parents. Fire is tall and intimidating. Her height is a trait from her sire, and with it comes her intimidating aura. One can't help but feel awed in the presence of Fire; she is imperious, and with her imperious attitude comes arrogance. Her physical features are sleek and proud, like a lioness, with a finely chiseled Arabian style head, complete with a set of expressive eyes. One could mistake Fire's face as that of a gentler filly; this is not so, for when one sees the challenge glaring in those expressive eyes and pairs that with Fire's height, she becomes quite a bit more scary. Her eyes are her only expressive characteristic; the rest of her expressions are muted, quiet. Despite her scary exterior, she is not a hard filly to get to know. One simply has to look beyond her physical stature and aura. Fire is courageous, and deeply passionate about anything she does. She puts her best hoof forward at all times, and tends to make good decisions. She is calculating and intelligent. However, this intelligence makes her imperious. You have to treat Fire just the right way in order to get her to trust you; if treated in this way, she becomes very easy to know, and easy to predict. You just have to put the puzzle together. Fire is a midpacker. She doesn't like to lead, but she doesn't like to trail either. She likes to be in the thick of things, where she can survey what is going on both in front and in back of her. Because of her massive body, she has equally long strides, just like her sire, so is not afraid of running on the outside if she has to. She is also an excellent decision maker, so if she gets stuck in the pack she can usually find a way out without too much work on the part of her rider. Fire has a deep passion for anything she does, meaning that she will try her absolute hardest to make things happen. This makes her a strategic runner willing to take risks. The downside is the speed of her break; it takes a bit for her long legs to uncoil and get in order, but when they do she usually has no problems catching up to the field and taking the place she prefers in the middle of the pack. As a mid packer, she would probably linger in behind us, and challenge for the lead later in the race.
Roy is strong, handsome and fast. Being one of the bigger horses we own, he's not afraid to throw his weight around in order to get done what he wants to get done. Any horse that questions him has to face up to his intimidating height and fierce personality. He can be a bit of a bully to the other horses if things don't go his way, and if he's in a horrible mood he's something every person wants to avoid dealing with. Unfortunately, Roy knows very well that his height gives him an advantage over others and makes him strong, and never wastes an opportunity to show it off. He's proud of who he is, and even as he matures we don't see him giving up his show-off personality. It's just too finely ingrained in him, too much a part of his identity. To match up to his strength, he's also very energetic, which gives him the stamina to deal with those that question him. He is definitely a hard horse to handle, but one rider stepped up to the challenge; Krystal Yhate from Stride Of Perfection. At KHS, Alice stood up to the challenge; Krystal had dealt with horses like Roy before, mainly Passionate Class. She saw Roy as Classy, but on the dirt, and believes him to have the potential to surprise everybody, despite his rather abrasive and aggressive personality. Alice is now doing the same. Roy comes from an excellent background with fantastic lines. His sire Royal Red Richard is a Hall of Fame inductee. He was highly successful and respected on the track, and his progeny are becoming stars too. For example, Roy's half brother Pegasus Wings has been taking the track by storm with his fast times and breathtaking wins in sprints, even though he's only fifteen hands high. While Roy is taller, he shares his half brother's love of the dirt, and his energetic personality. Roy's dam Strictly Speaking never made it to the Hall of Fame, but consistently caught our eye and was marked down as a threat. She was a classy mare, no doubt about that, and very speedy. From his parents, Roy has inherited his love of the dirt, and his distance preferences for the miler to classic range. He has also inherited his little quirks from them. On the track, Roy's personality shifts. He becomes less emotional, more quiet and focused. Whether this is because racing is in his blood and he instinctively knows what to do, or whether it is because of the different moods on the day of the race, he becomes easier to handle and more willing to listen. If there's one thing Roy likes, it's racing. He sees it as an opportunity to further extend his "reign" and become supreme ruler. When the race starts, he breaks quickly and takes the lead. He's not one of those front running types that just blindly takes the lead and stays there, though. If he is consistently challenged, he drops back a little and instead pressures the challenging horse until they tire. If he is not challenged, he purposely goes slower, both to conserve his energy and to tease the other horses into breaking for the lead but tiring before the wire. He's one of those "machine" horses, the type that seems to have unlimited reserves of speed and stamina. While this is, of course, not true, he is very skilled at maintaining energy so that he doesn't tire out before the race is over, which gives the image of unlimited power. I asked the colt for a trot, and he responded quickly. We were going to breeze from the mile pole... we'd start the workout at seven furlongs and work the last two furlongs as fast as we could. My automated stop watch was programmed to start timing between the two and the finish. The colt trotted forward, and I rose with his quick paced trot. I asked him for canter and he responded quickly and easily. I stood in my stirrups and let him canter. I began to quicken up a little bit, as we breezed past the seven. I didn't push him, I just let him run, like he'd do in a normal race. I continued to relax, and as we came round the far turn and past the three, the colts stride lengthened. I pushed him forward and he responded. We came to the two and he was all out, sprinting like a cheetah, his over dramatic leg movement and long strided gallop covered the dirt. The snow blew on my face and the wind made tears run from my eyes and my face go red, but I continued to drive him forward with every last thing I'd got. The tears on my face began to freeze, and I wiped them away, pushing with one hand. We flew under the wire, and I was so shocked with how fast he had worked. I looked at my stop watch. Twenty seconds... flat. I gasped. Good boy, we were ready to crush this field.