"So we're taking on the dragon before the lambs?" Brooks questioned as Mal stepped out of the stall. The man's brilliant white teeth flashed in the dark at Brooks' snarky comment. "Might as well start with the toughest horse and work our way down. Besides, it's not like you've got anything better to do today." The blond man snorted at that. "I could be in bed snuggled up next to the fireplace and Ripley." Mal laughed, reached into the stall and grabbed a hold of the occupants bridle. "This one'll put some fire your belly as well." Mal pushed the stall wide, but refused to budge an inch from the opening. It was a thing they were working with this particular yearling. There wasn't a pushier yearling in the bunch than this one. It was in her lines to be so and she more than lived up to them. Brooks and Mal eyed the filly as if she were a bomb about to go off. Her eyes kindled with a liveliness that was hard to replicate and sparked with a danger rarely found in a horse so young. Her body glowed like a candle in the morning light, dapples catching here and there over her rump. She had been galloped religiously for the last couple of months and her muscles were to die for. Easily stronger than most fillies, Enrapture looked more like a colt. It was a family trait. "You know..." Brooks mulled. "I'm glad Ripley isn't wrong in this case. She's a nice filly to look at." Mal hummed in agreement. "You've been on her in her gallops. You know she'll be even nicer to ride. Today's gonna be that first important breeze. We'll find out what she's got for us and I think we both know what's going to be there." "Doesn't hurt to test it," Brooks said. Mal lead the brilliant bay filly from her stall. Her eyes blazed into Brooks and she seemed to personally challenge him. She was something else this Furious Passion filly. Something different than he had ridden before. He'd ridden great horses. Frozen Motion was great enough to be a Champion at The Wire and Sun King was well on his way. But Enrapture... There was just something that made him stop and think about what could be. He reached out a hand and laid it beneath her black muzzle. The filly eyed him first, measuring him before touching her nose to his palm in arrogant greeting. He could say he felt a chill creep up his back, but Mal wouldn't know what to say to that. It was very unmanning to say a yearling filly created such feelings. What he didn't know was Mal was thinking the same thing. "Alright, enough bonding. Work." Before Brooks could say anything, he was hurled aboard the 16 hand filly and out of the barn. "Tuck those feet in the stirrups, Wells, or you aren't going to be in the saddle long." The power beneath him caused the blonde man to obey. Enrapture bowed her neck, touched her chin to her muscular chest and pranced down the path. The remaining jockeys, staff and Ripley lined up at the fence rail. Ennie was by far the most far along in her training. Everyone was interested in what this particular horse could do. Mal and Brooks were near bursting with pride, imaging the vision that Ennie created. Black mane waving around her head, Enrapture looked every inch the daughter of a Triple Crown winner. She passed through the gap, ears pricked and tail carried high. Brooks let out a breath, turned the filly and waited for instructions. "Awfully impressive," Ripley sighed as she approached. The green eyed woman smiled. "She would have been my mount so you better treat her right, Brooks." The loss of a chance to ride Enrapture picked at Ripley still, but she'd come to settle with it. She had to keep this baby and now was right time to bow out. With Mastermind and Cross. Saint and Hourglass would fair fine without her. They weren't dependent on their partnership. They were just really good horses who knew how to get the job done. "Go a half mile gallop and let her breeze three furlongs starting just before the turn and finishing past the wire." Brooks nodded, turned Ennie again. The filly snorted as wind buffeted her savagely fine head. She jogged with grace down the outside fence-line before moving into her fine canter. She had a presence to her that was indescribable. Brooks rested his hands at the filly's withers, only guiding her to the center of track when they moved into the first turn. She picked up the pace gradually until she was galloping parallel with the ground. Her mouth played on the bit even as her black tinged ears remained pricked. For such a fiery filly, she was a patient one under saddle. She cruised instead of demanded. They passed through the remaining two furlongs with ease, Brooks loosening the reins notch by careful notch. Now the filly really picked it up, stretching her neck as far as possible and simply skipping over the dirt. Brooks let out breaths, feeling as though she wasn't going that fast enough to be a breeze. Unwilling to ask more, Brooks kept his poise into the turn. Ennie grabbed at the bit in the middle of the turn, almost pulling Brooks from the saddle. Her legs flew beneath her as she picked up the other lead. Brooks wound the reins and flying mane in his hand, stunned speechless by this rush. Yet... it wasn't really a rush. She was such an effortless mover that they were in the turn and she was still just as strong. Ears pinned, Ennie battled the driving wind in the stretch. Her muscles contracted and released with every impressive stride. And Brooks had yet to move a muscle. When she drove through the wire, she was doing it all on her own. A knife couldn't have cut the buzzing tension on the rail as Ennie rolled into the first turn. "Was that a breeze, Mal?" Ripley asked, eyes not leaving the filly as she bulled into the backstretch, fighting Brooks' restraint. "Clock says it wasn't..." Mal grunted. The filly had left an impression as deep as her hoof print on the ground in his brain. Graceful as she was, it didn't even look like she'd been running fast. Time didn't lie and neither did :34 3/5 seconds for a three furlong distance. She'd been flying and she hadn't even been tested.
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WorkoutsPlease realize that I do add in workouts before they are necessarily due. If you are looking for a specific horse because you are judging a race, click on his/her name below and his/her latest workout will appear at the top or your screen. Categories
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