The Third Jewel | Extra

Horse: BTs Mustard Blue
Race: TJC 2018 Belmont Stakes
Entry: Here Come The Closers

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Did I spend to much time on this? Yes. Do I care? hmm. Nope XD
To be honest I would like to work more on this but I'm just kinda...done XD Still, I got to draw Blue handsome for once, not a complete dork like usual.

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Story: 880 words

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James Johnson didn’t want to be at the Belmont Stakes.

Did he think the big chestnut could pull it off? Maybe. But that was only if everything went right, and if the other two legs of the Triple Crown were anything to judge by, that was not going to happen. First, a horrible break to lose by a neck. Then a BRILLIANT break that had the poor colt wandering around the track like he was blind. Now? Two devil horses that would be defying the odds if they didn’t cause trouble.

The odds were not in his favor.

Yet, Hera, being the ever so optimistic woman she was, felt confident it didn’t matter. Blue was ready for the biggest challenge of his life, and that was that.

And boy was it a challenge. Ella Lorena, winner of the Kentucky Oaks over Connachan, had been the talk of the town since the Preakness. Connachan had gotten second to that filly and then gone on to win the Preakness. It meant Ella Lorena was a serious contender, even if it was a longer distance. Proletarian had also stepped up his game from the Kentucky Derby, beating Mustard Blue soundly in the Preakness and James had no doubts about his ability to go 12 furlongs. Then of course, Blue’s two rivals: Beelzebub and Foxfire, both of which had the pedigree and the talent to make a name for themselves at Big Sandy. Even Grand Slamm, a new shooter James had written off before the Preakness, had impressed him, and he was coming back in a form that James, as a trainer, had to admit was going to be very difficult to beat.

“Thinking about the race again worry wort?” Hera asked, stepping next to him. He was looking out into the track, watching the horses work as Blue was getting ready. Normally he would be with his assistant (which Hera had made him get after he had taken on Allonsee and Sunkist) but he trusted them to be fine on their own. He had wanted to just be with Hera that morning. She always made his nerves disappear, as if her chipper, morning-person attitude just took everything he had to worry about and threw it in the trash.

“Aren’t you paying me to worry about the race?” James said, still gazing upon the track. Ella Lorena’s deep red coat was flashing down the lane. She looked like a nice filly. A strong filly. One that could take on the boys and beat them soundly.

“Why couldn’t you have gotten a colt with a pedigree like that?” James joked with a fake sigh as he sat down beside his client. Triton was a new sire, but a brilliant one. A proven horse with invaluable speed and versatility.

“Because then I would have a million-dollar lawn ornament,” Hera answered easily.

“Instead we have a sprinter-bred horse who we are expecting to run in a mile and a half,” James pointed out. It was a truly frightening thought, especially when he admitted out loud. They were in way over their heads.

But Hera just shrugged. “He’s already run longer than his parents and won. He’ll be fine.”

James chuckled with a kind smile over his face, something he had gotten used to now that he was around Hera more and more. “How can you be so confident all the time? It must be exhausting.”

“How can you worry so much? I swear if I worried that much I’d have my first heart attack already!” Hera exclaimed. James laughed.

“You’re too beautiful to have a heart attack,” he said. With another client, he would have never said those words. But he knew Hera now, knew that she was a kid at heart, and just like he expected, she just gave an exaggerated pose.

“Of course! I am the most beautiful woman in all of Wyoming!” she said dramatically. Then she burst out laughing, and he joined her. He wasn’t nearly as loud or as lively Hera was, but it still felt good all the same.

Her eyes locked onto the entrance to the tunnel and she gasped.

“There he is!”

Like a kid at DisneyLand, Hera sprang to her feet and leaned over the bars to get a good look at her racehorse.

Blue emerged like a star, his walk as powerful as it was before the Derby. His weight was spot on as well, considering he had run two races in two weeks. It looked like he was ready to run a 100 miles as he strutted on the track, no longer paying any heed to the cameras. He had the jockey on his back, after all. It was go time.

‘Perhaps, he will outrun his pedigree,’ James wondered as the colt sprang into a trot down the track. Blue had excelled at two, after all, winning a graded stakes with a close second in the Breeders Cup. And then he had continued doing well despite all the mishaps: 2^nd in the Southwest, 1^st in the Rebel, 2^nd in the Kentucky Derby, and 3^rd in the Preakness. It was not a bad record for a horse born for the shorter distances and a different surface.

‘Perhaps,’ thought James, ‘it is high time I stop underestimating him.’

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Ref: media.cleveland.com/horseracin…