Back of the Pack / Tip of the Tongue

MY DERBY IMAGE 
For the love of God DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD you can see all the actual work I put into this bad boy

Honestly I don't love it. It's a challenge because it is HUGE. It's A2 which I have NEVER attempted before for HARPG and it's worth having it as a download. Not loving it as soo many of the details just weren't coming out & I burned myself out. Thank you Misty for the extension because there would've been no way I'd have finished it by last Saturday. Is it even finished now? I could probably go into some details but I am done with this pic! I really wanted some xtreme angles but it didn't work out that way this pic just didn't want to be that extreme. I wanted bulging eyes and sweaty muscles and they would not appear!! Deadpool and Ashleigh are a bit sweaty. Also I don't know if you can see in the image, but Sam is supposed to be dropping the reins, which will be illustrated more in the story! 

It's not really wildly muddy enough, but I guess it's the start of the race so I've got some splash back, and you can see the muddy track in the distance. I've depicted the other horses as less mud lovin, but Gremlin's a mud fiend lol

Also I realised when I was writing this I totally missed a trick with a white to black spectrum of The Witching Hour, Gremlin, Steel Force, and Deadpool... but next pic!! Or is that #spoilers??

Also I fit in the stories of Witching Hour and AquaSalt's The Foghorn into mine and I neeearly picked Foghorn to be the red filly in front of Gremlin and I am so sad i didn't because Gremlin features in her story and it's great! Go read I wish I read it earlier we definitely could have cooked up a nice rivarlry there, which I will certainly be featuring in the Preakness/Belmont. 
Go read: 
Tweety 2016 JC Kentucky Derby




 - THE GREMLIN
Jockey: Sam McLean
Trainer/Owner: Rob McLean 

Extra Images: 
  
Training / Arrival / Cool Down 

Featuring:
SVS Volcanic Ashleigh
LPS Coat of Sin
FHF Witching Hour
BME Deadpool

And btw my story is classically LONG but I enjoyed doing it immensely! There's probably like a billion spelling errors. 'Infant' is always supposed to be 'in front' btw

Word Count: 2269 oops lol

***

Sam wakes to the sun bleeding on the horizon. The sky is hot, hot fire licking at blackened clouds. The sound of the rain has woken him. It leaks in through the window. He can feel it dampen his face as he throws back the blanket. His eyes are sore and he can feel the morning, straining in his bones. He is creaky. Although it is raining the room is hot, but not stuffy. He rises from the bed, to admire the view. He can see the mist swallowing the racetrack and stables below. The red of the sun bleeds onto the bluegrass fields in the distance. As it crawls up he hears a screech from the barns below, signalling the colt was awake. 

Willa is at the stall before the sun has reached the stalls. The horses beside him potter around. He can feel them near. His head lies over the door chain. He has been awake for a short while, and he is already restless. He breathes loudly. He can see Willa moving nearby in the dark. There are some other humans nearby. There are some distant noises along the stall lane. The white filly from the farm before answers his screech sleepily. They are used to his morning rooster calls. Willa approaches, tired, and he does not move to bite her. She works quickly and he knows she will get him out of the stall. She leaves him his breakfast. He whinnies at her. She sleepily runs her hand over the crest of his neck. He pouts, and attends to his food. 

Sam goes down the stairs to where his breakfast is served before him. He drinks two litres of water. His coffee is decaf. Black. Granola. Toast, avocado. Bacon. Carb heavy. He wipes the grease from his mouth. More water. Upstairs. Dresses. 

Out into the morning. Run. 

Out into the morning. Run.  

He and Willa are on the track at the crack of dawn. She mounts him in the courtyard and lazily they wander down to the track, dark shapes of other horses milling around. She is lazy but he is bright, focused. He dances a little. Willa has trained with him enough to know he is his least rambunctious in the early morning, when he knows he will get out, when he the wind welcomes him back into the open. On days like this he doesn’t even need a spotter, but Gremlin sees the other stablehand move to the trackside behind them. He is first there, though he knows others will come soon. His breaths are great clouts of fog spilling out of his nostrils. Though it is muggy there is a sharpness in the air. It has been wet. It will likely rain again before the morning is met with midday. He can feel the tickle on his skin. Willa sets him off onto the track at a canter, long and low, run and run and run. The heat is rising. 

Sweat Lodge.
Sweat Lodge. 

Though not really, more like the steam room. Sam makes small talk with the other jockeys, distracting himself from the anxious lump growing in his belly. Tension, excitement, adrenaline. Like Gremlin he isn’t used to the heat, but he grits his teeth and pushes through. He sits by himself for a while, the time is ticking. He feels a little sick. The jockeys begin to exit the steam room. Sam waits a beat. He hears his name being called. He follows. 

Willa on his back let’s him run and run but not too much. He starts off fast, eagerly on the earth but he soon settles, mouth off the bit and ears forward and lungs open. The sun climbs, bearing down on them both. The mud and sun of Fox Harbor Farms for the last few weeks has been a great help. Though he loathes the sun it no longer smothers him. He has learned to breathe in the sweat and mug. Nostrils open, nose up, legs reaching reaching, tip of his toes dusting the ground. As the dawns moves into morning, the workout comes to an end, and they must prepare for the race. Rob meets them at the gate. He doesn’t even try to bite him. 

**

The drone of the crowd has been getting steadily higher as they moved through the dressing and weigh in and then before he knows it the roof opens up and he is there moving along a line of jockeys and they are moving into the paddock. Lights flash in his eyes and there are cameras and people and the drone cracks into a storm. The rain has stopped and the sun breaks out above and the heat is rising. He blinks up at it. An angry eye. The crowd buzzes in his ears. He keeps walking, they move through a gate and they are in the stalls and looming before him is the huge daunting grey juggernaut. And then his dad is at his shoulder, a comforting smile, a well wish, and then a leg up up and into the saddle. Even closer to the sun. ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ plays in the air. 

He can feel the excitement from the crowd seep into his lungs through his nostrils. His eyes bulge waringly at the crowd. In the run up he has gained a reputation, and the crowd stays back. Two stablehands lead him at arms length. They are sour mouthed. He doesn’t like these ones. His demeanour from the morning waned slightly. He has gone for them already this morning. He eyeballs a whitefaced filly as she moves out in front of him. The hands move him quickly through the crowd, but he doesn’t need to be asked twice. He can see the track as one by one they begin to peel away from the ring and out into onto the dirt. The hands are gone. Willa replaces them. He is comforted and calmed by her presence. The boy on his back and Willa at his head.The parade begins down to the gate. 

The closer and closer they get the green gates Sam’s adrenaline starts up. He fumbles with the whip in his hand. Gremlin is kept back as the other horses begin to enter the gate. Sam spots Fox Harbor’s white filly start to play up. He is concerned, but Gremlin is stoic. 

He watches her with an ear. A bold gate hand grabs Gremlin from Willa and she melts away, but he needs not be asked twice. He slips into the gate. He meets eyes with the whitefaced filly on his left. There is some animosity from her but he ignores her.

The rumble of the crowd, the clanking of the gate, the stir of the horses signals the adrenaline. It pumps steadily, building building building. On the edge of his seat, heart in his mouth, breath on the tip of his tongue heart in his chest, dimming of the crowd, the last of the horses, shouts building building BUILDING

AND THEY’RE OFF, IN THE KENTUCKY DERBY! 

CLIMAX

.

Sam feels the surge of the colt spit him out onto the track. They clatter through the gate and the bodies around them close in. He can feel the heat of their bodies and the rasp of their breaths. Gremlin sinks back, allowing the pack to form and squeeze in front of him. Sam sees the grey settle fittingly in between the white, grey and black, and for a second they are a spectrum before the white shoots ahead, chasing a red, chased by a red, a brown, the black on his outside. Their bodies blur and move apart, a sea of wet muscle, grains of sand flowing through an hourglass. 

Gremlin on the other hand sees each and every one and oh so clearly. He sees the gaps between and where they will travel. They flow past but he will run over. He sees the leaders take their place at the front, setting a blistering pace. The red on his left squeezes through the group, he follows her, hot on her heels, but another cuts him off. His head is up, the reins are slack. The boy on his back is all but weightless. He will cut up the crowd soon enough. They cover ground in seconds. He is way at the back, but there is plenty of time. Beneath them, the ground begins to churn like butter under the hooves of the front runners. Collectively they all seize, rolling their eyes at the swampy earth as they sink down further. Gremlin relaxes. The laborious sun meets the cool earth as it flies onto his skin. A perfect match, as they come for the corner. 

The screams of the crowd roar in his right ear as they past the finish on the left. Each second is a stride and Gremlin has found his watch in the white filly. He will not run far from her. She moves swiftly amidst the pack, moving for the rail. Sam notes the spray of mud on his mask. Light for now, but it will worsen. The sun beats down on their backs, and the mud flung has gone acrid in the heat. The grey colt is comfortable over the mud. For now he is still tall, there is a way to go. He can feel Gremlin tinkering with the bit and in anticipation Sam gathers them in his fists. He notes the firmer ground on the outside, but not all the horses are so confident in muddy waters. The turn comes and he starts to move up and forward, his hands tense on the reins though he is barely there and -

he is thrown forward and the reins loose from his grip and he is diving down and his mouth meets the neck and his hands meet air and panic floods his body and he cannot see and his feet are stuck and where are the reins and a scream is lodged in his mouth and a scream come from Gremlin and are they falling where is the corner and metal in his mouth, a shoulder, a swing, no ground but low very low and the sun through mud and he gasps like he was drowning and Gremlin’s eyes in his for a second and the reins yes there and he sits in the saddle, his feet in the stirrups, Gremlin’s head is up up up but his back is low low did he fall? the power in his front half the low wail of the engine and the thrust forward up and away round the corner, he wipes his eyes, his hearts beats, he sees the horses materialise again Gremlin is up, away cutting through mud and he is back, in the stirrups, on the reins, in the air, weightless weightless weightless again as his mouth fills with blood

On the corner the puddle was waiting - too deep too deep - and his slide was too deep and the earths folds back from under him and his head goes down to balance the slide and the tension on his teeth on the bit pulls the reins along with the boy and the boy slams into his neck as he is on the way up. He must lift up, up, the weight is there and there is struggle - neck up neck up! - lift them both from the mud, he has not fallen but his nose kisses the mud in a swoop he must return the boy to his back - knees up knees up! - hands on the reins, the reins, the bit, the stirrups, back in the saddle, up in the air and off off off they go in hot pursuit of a white filly gaining gaining gaining ground 

His heart in his mouth and his mouth is filling with blood, he spits it out as they round away from the crowd. He can hear the roar, the gasp, but it is short-lived he is back. The panic surges but he focuses, sees the horses go in for the second corner. He loosens the reins for the second stretch, the horses are beginning to stretch out and he knows Gremlin needs a flatline. Gremlin can match any pace and Sam is concerned the slip will take out some energy but unlike him Gremlin is calm, calmer than normal sitting on the outside, he bares his teeth for a second at the horses closing in around him, but then he has a second thought a shields them. He is focused today. His ears goes back, he lowers, extends, he is ready to cut through and he is reaching, legs reaching over and over the ground only six ahead still not full, still fit though the sweat begins to show. 

Gremlin can feel the sun baking down on him and he resents it. Closer to the mud feels like home but its stickiness matches the humidity of the air and it’s a strain on his legs. Soon the stretch becomes a turn and then a stretch and then he can get out. The bunch cramps together on the turn and he can see the gaps he pockets into and in a flash he is there, only a few horses from the front as the turn becomes the stretch and no one knows where he came from and Sam is weightless but full of blood and he stretches out out out like a cheetah, tip of his toes kiss the earth, soundless, emerging from the mud and heat and taking flight