The Black and Sugar

CH14: To Florida

We celebrated after the race, Henry, Alec and I, telling stories late into the night. Henry was the first to go, the old man depressingly tired already. The Black was running tomorrow afternoon, and Royale the following day. But we were all ready for a good night of sleep, so I don't know about the others, but it didn't take me long at all to find myself dreaming, dead in sleep.

The next two days flew by quickly. The Black won his race easily, and Royale took third in his race, though he got in bad traffic, bumped, and jostled. He was rough around in the pack, but showed off like he had a lot of potential, and came back eager to go again. So following the races, we packed up, and by the next morning, we hauled off.

Henry drove the van containing the Black and Sugar, I drove Henry's old pickup with hay, straw, and the rest of the miscellaneous items, and Alex drove the final van containing Midnight Madness and Royale. It was a much longer drive to get to Florida than it had been to get to Belmont, but the scenery was beautiful. The further down the coast we got, the more green and luscious the view became, along with the abundance of beaches, and trees.

We stopped for the night in North Carolina at the farm of a friend of Henry's, a quaint but beautiful stable, with lush green grass that the horses spent the night grazing on. But before the sun could rise the next morning, we were on the road again, and set to reach Hialeah not too late in the afternoon.

We pulled into the track together around four in the afternoon, the sun was still high in the sky, and the air much more humid and warm. While Henry checked in, Alec and I began unloading the four head of horses, first with the Black and Sugar, then the colts. We walked them, watered them, and checked them over, making sure everything was in the shape it was when we'd loaded that morning.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting the stalls set and the horses settled in. The barns here were newer than the ones at Belmont, and the stalls were slightly more spacious, and better lit. Sugar right away took to his stall to roll around in the abundant shavings and straw, relieved to be out of the trailer and in a solid place.

The season has already begun here at Hialeah, and we would give the horses another day to get settled in before we began working them again. Tomorrow we had a meeting for the invitational, then we figured we would spend the day watching the races, and hanging around the track to get the scoop on things going on, like what races would be the ones to enter the younger horses in. Henry didn't stick around long either, grunting, "I want to be out there working the horses early tomorrow, so I'm off to bed," he waddled away, to his truck, and went to check into the hotel room he'd leased for his time here.

That left me and Alec alone together. He was sitting on the bale of alfalfa resting between Sugar and the Black's stall, crouched over slightly, looking tired. He and I had done the most work, although, I would have to say he did more than me. I sat down on his lap, facing toward him, and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. Our lips locked together, and I felt happy. Happy to be here, and even happier to be here with him.

He sat back, resting his hands softly on my waist, looking into my eyes. "You're perfect," he said, with a smile. I laid my head down on his shoulder, feeling the wake of exhaustion coming over me. He understood, standing up and picking me up with him. Before I knew it, I was asleep, dreaming of the grey horse running next door.