The first half of Kaylin Podmore's sophomore year of high school was pretty intense for someone who usually tries to keep away from the drama. It seemed like almost every day she spent her day fighting with someone, whether it was between her parent...
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I am up and out of bed a few minutes before my alarm is set to go off at 4:30 a.m. the next Monday morning to get ready for the morning's workouts and I'm feeling especially excited, and a little anxious if I'm being honest, about this one in particular today.
It's Magic's first workout session since she took her well earned break after becoming the racing world's newest Triple Crown winner.
When my alarm finally did go off, I was already putting a change of clothes on my bed and I tapped the screen of my Google Nest Hub so hard that I almost knocked my Nest off of my nightstand.
Oops, haha.
After using the bathroom, I swipe on some deodorant, brush my teeth and my hair, pulling it back into a low ponytail to fit my helmet nicely before I go back to my bedroom. I change into my botox blue cap sleeve top with a narrow standing v-neckline which I decide to pair with my charcoal gray pair of high-rise riding tights with a black stripe along the waistband and down the thighs, a wide waistband, a pocket along the back of the waistband, a right thigh pocket and a rubberized grip pattern at the knees.
Heading downstairs, I let Roxy out into the backyard and spend a few extra minutes with her, tossing a ball for her in the still rising sunlight. I get us back inside so I can go to the mudroom to slide my feet into my black pair of leather zip-up paddock boots.
During these past five weeks, it's been so nice having Magic back on the property and getting to see her every freaking day. My favorite filly has been spending most of her time in the sunshine, relaxing in a grassy paddock by herself since we didn't want the yearling fillies and her to rile each other up, possibly risking injury to any of them. She hasn't seemed to miss track life too much, but I don't miss how she looks over at the track whenever we're going to and from the barn and her paddock.
It's rare having our horses back on the property once they're in training sans the long winter break or an injury they can't heal from at the tracks, so I've been soaking up and savoring as much one-on-one time I can get with Magic like this.
My parents and Kyle were relieved with how Magic came out of the Triple Crown as well as she did and we've planned out her comeback race, the Whitney Stakes during the first weekend in August, almost four weeks from today.
The Whitney Stakes is one of the big races of the summer meets and being almost two months after the Belmont, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. The race is for three-year-olds and older and it's held in Saratoga Springs, New York at Saratoga Race Course where horses go a mile-and-an-eighth over the dirt track for a $1,250,000 purse.
I'm a little worried about the track itself because Magic has never taken to it well, but I have to trust my parents and Kyle's judgment on this.
If she comes out of the Whitney well, win or lose, we're probably going to ship her across the country to Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California, so she can get a feel for the track over there before The Breeders' Cup Championship since Del Mar is hosting the event this year. She hasn't ran there before, never mind the fact that she's only been across the country once before, a little more than an hour north of Del Mar at Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress in December for her last race of 2020. She won the race there, but that doesn't mean she'll like Del Mar, she already doesn't seem to like Saratoga, so we'd be risking things either way.
