HARPG: Veridical

EDITED AGAIN to give her a pedigree. I put the registered colours of all of her ancestors, but it is totally possible that she got her paintiness from the bottom side of that.

Edited to make her both Splash- and Sabino-carrying. :3 Awry is now a splash-sabino paint, btw. Thanks to ~idlewild202 for the help with fixing this family.


Aaaah, my dear sweet comfort zone. Thoroughbreds, how I love you.

First foundation mare for the upcoming racing segment of Brazen Fields. Tra-la-la. >D

Name: Veridical
Gender: Mare
Breed: Thoroughbred
Height: 16hh
Color: Dark bay sabino
Genotype: EE Aa nSb nSpl
Markings: Four stockings, blaze, minimal sabino
Temperament: Deeply competitive and very much an alpha mare. No horse outranks Cal, and if they try, she's not above a good tussle. With people, however, she turns her considerable quickness of mind to mischief, often testing a new handler before allowing him or her to lead her. You earn Veridical.
Discipline: Dirt racing
Preferred distance: 8-12 furlongs
Running style: First flight
Bloodlines: Foundation mare
Offspring:
Awry, by Paradox owned by *Greatalmightyqueen
Dorado, by DD Gold Bullet owned by *Greatalmightyqueen
Hedwig, by Snowbird, owned by *Greatalmightyqueen
Eidolon, by Universal Ghost, owned by *Greatalmightyqueen
For stud/lease: Unavailable

We found Veridical for sale in the second-last book of the Keeneland September sale, having already decided that the high-end babies were well beyond our budget. However, something in yearling Cal, overlooked by most buyers because of a somewhat dull coat and butt-heavy conformation, caught our eye, and she was purchased for $17,000. Sure enough, she matured into a well-balanced filly, though not in time to race her as a juvenile. Instead, she was kept at the farm over the winter, her exercise consisting mostly of long gallops under saddle over the grassy expanses of the estate.

In her three-year-old debut, she exploded. Displaying scorching speed out of the gate, she didn't slow down for a mile, stopping the clock in an eye-popping 1:34 flat, unheard-of for a runner debuting at eight furlongs. Next out, she proved it was no fluke, winning a starter allowance by six lengths wire-to-wire in 1:35 2/5 under a stranglehold. We were giddy with excitement and upped the ante, entering her next in the GII Davona Dale Stakes at Gulfstream Park. She won that, too, though the fight was tougher this time and she turned back the closers for a hard-earned half-length victory in a gorgeous 1:34 3/5.

The GII Bonnie Miss Stakes was next, also at Gulfstream Park, but this time stretching out to nine furlongs. Veridical showed a new dimension in this, her fourth race, resisting an early speed duel between a pair of longshots and sitting in third. At the top of the stretch she pounced, "seeming", as the Blood-Horse reported, "to break from the gate again." The exhausted longshots stood no chance, nor did the closers; no sooner had they begun to rally than Cal was gone, her vicious acceleration carrying her far away and alone at the head of the pack. She won by eight lengths in 1:48 3/5.

The only doubt as to her next start would be whether to keep her in her own division and run in the Kentucky Oaks, or to try the Derby. In the end, the dream prevailed. Verdical was entered in the run for the roses.

On Derby day, the excitement was tangible. A filly which had not started at two was running in the Derby in only her fifth career start. The odds were astronomical, and yet she was sent off at only 8-1 to challenge the winners of the Wood Memorial, the Lane's End Stakes, the Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Santa Anita Derbies.

And she went to the lead.

Breaking from the 3-hole, it was the only choice. To her inside, another speed horse broke from the rail, and to her outside, in the four and six, two more speedsters. Her options were to settle back and risk getting tucked into a neat little box for ten furlongs, or to gun it and hope that Veridical's scorching speed could keep on. She ran the opening quarter in :22 4/5 seconds.

The half-mile was slower, going in :46 3/5, but Veridical earned no rest. After three quarters in 1:11, a horse darted to her inside, seeking the lead, and she would have none of it. Defying her jockey, she hooked the newcomer and took off again. Rounding the far turn, the pair had a four-length advantage on the rest of the field, and at the top of the stretch, she promptly dispatched her challenger and spurted away as the cavalry charge gained momentum.

Now her jockey asked for speed, and Veridical gave all she had. A mile had been run in 1:35, utter suicide with another furlong ahead, and now the class of the race was bearing down on her. The lead was cut from four lengths to three, two, one, and now she had a Derby winner on either side; Arkansas on the left and Florida on the right. But even giving all she had, she could not hold them. The photo finish told the story: Veridical had finished third by two noses. Thoroughbred Times called it "undoubtedly one of the best efforts, losing or otherwise, in Derby history." The final time was 1:59 4/5. After having run quarters of :22 4/5, :23 4/5, :24 2/5 and :24, she'd had something left for the fifth quarter, finishing up in :24 4/5. "If she'd held on," the Blood-Horse reported, "she would have been immediately called Rachel reincarnate. As it is, I'm not sure she isn't."

Given a well-deserved rest, she came back in the Belmont Stakes and became the most popular spoiler of a Triple Crown bid in history, defeating her Derby conquerors by three lengths.

Over the course of her career spanning her three- and four-year-old seasons, Veridical won the Davona Dale, Bonnie Miss, Belmont, Travers, Louisville Distaff, Stephen Foster, Whitney, Jockey Club Gold Cup and Breeders' Cup Classic and finished second in the Haskell, Donn Handicap and Woodward Stakes. The Kentucky Derby was the only time she finished worse than second.

Record: 15-11-3-1

I had way too much fun dreaming in Technicolor there. Waaaaaay.

Story inspiration drawn from Rachel Alexandra, From the Ashes, and other dark recesses of my mind.