Post by creativecause on Aug 1, 2014 16:06:15 GMT -5
A Star In the Making
Allouette Divine and Jessie Coppermen
It was a late hazy day in the first week of August. The sun had set already and the track was illuminated by the lights for the horses that worked later in the day. It was humid. Which was a bit unusual considering it was August, but heavens knows what weather does. The track had been buzzing all day about the upcoming racing at Green Horse Fields. The Sprinter Triple Crowns and Tiaras had started back in July and the Sprinter Triple and Tiara’s would start this weekend. Grayson Meadows hadn’t had much experience around the Triple Crowns and Tiaras, only Daddy’s Overdraft had run in them. Now they had another contender though, Allouette Divine. The filly was from unknown lineage but was making a lot of noise around the track. The filly ran down the boys in the Quick Cup to win convincingly, then pulled a second place finish in the Girls Party against her own gender, then ran down the boys again to upset in the Star Party. Divie either didn’t like her filly counterparts or was just streaky. So Grayson Meadows aimed her for the Tiara. Some may think that she would have been better suited for the Sprinter Triple Crown because she had already beaten Optimus Unstoppable and Alucard convincingly twice in a row. She could handle herself against the boys despite her lower Grade Four status. Divie was peaking and at the right time.
The Shining Stakes would have one other entrant, Wishing For A Heroine. The filly had great lines and didn’t seem to live up to them. Although she had never really run sprints, she had run seven furlongs, eight furlongs, and nine furlongs, but she hadn’t won a five furlong sprint all season. Divie had. That was Grayson Meadows’ advantage with Divie, she knew her own strength in a sprint, which would help them immensely. Wishing For A Heroine was a bit of a wildcard, streaky too. It was going to be hard to predict how the race would turn out with no front runner.
Divie may not have been a Kentucky Oaks winner, but she was the filly who beat the top males in the three year old dirt sprinting division convincingly.
A lot of people may say Divie was a bit unclassed, going up against a newly G3 runner, but Divie was only one win away from G3 and the Shining Stakes was going to be her 7th win.
Jessie turned the energetic bay filly in a sharp circle on the dimly lit track before loading her into the gate. Jessie had gotten lucky, Divie was a top caliber filly and he knew it, Steve had put him on her because she needed a newer, energetic rider, one that matched her personality and he was the perfect match. Divie squealed in the gate before fixing her eyes on the battlefield ahead of her.
Steve, Hadley, and Alex stood on the side of the track, waiting to watch the filly run. Hadley looked up at the stars, which seemed two times brighter than normal. She smiled and looked back at Jessie and Divie in the gate.
The gate burst open and Divie leaped out, Jessie was already pushing her to go a bit quicker than they normally would have gone because she needed to be able to keep up with Wishing For A Heroine. They’d been working with her all week to get her to go a bit quicker so she wouldn’t be so far behind, and was able to be set up without a lot of pace. Divie responded nicely to the extra push and was running comfortably, even arching her neck because Jessie was having to hold her back.
“She’s running great.” Alex said.
“She’s ready to take that Everyday Hero baby down and show the world that pedigree means squat when you have heart,” Steve said looking out of his binoculars.
Divie swallowed up the dirt surface beneath her, Jessie inched some rein out of his hands to allow a bit more room for the fillies head, and gave her the bit to run against. Divie sped up in just milliseconds. Rounding the final turn into the home stretch Jessie called upon Divie, and the filly responded instantly, her heels dug into the dirt and she skyrocketed down the stretch. Determination flared in her eyes, power from her legs, and nothing but win was on Divie’s mind.
Steve looked down at his stop watch as the filly blasted past the wire. He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.
“Six furlongs in 1:06.61, five in 55.22, I don’t know about the three of you,” he smiled,”but I think she’s gonna win us a horse race come this weekend.”