Through The Dirt and Fame (major revisions)

Chapter Fourty-One

-2 weeks later, Saratoga Race Course-

I flew Emily to Saratoga to work with Jones. I drove over at about 5 am when I got a call from Caitlyn.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Nathan, it's Caitlyn. Meet us at Saratoga in about 2hrs. No questions please." She says.

"Okay?" I say good bye and hang up.

I enter the stables and find Jones with Emily, and a colt.

"Who's the colt?" He looked familiar somehow.

"This is Celtic Phantom. He's working with your filly today." Of course. I only work Emily with fillies. I felt a pang of anger inside me but I ignored it. I do believe Jones noticed it though as I walked to Emily. "She's spoiled." He said.

I quickly snapped my attention to Jones. "She's treated like any other horse in our stables." I said.

"So every horse in your stable is spoiled?" He said, he didn't even look at me. He just kept looking Celtic Phantom over.

"Well, it looks like our way of training works since we train winning horses." I said, Jones turn to look at me.

"What's that suppose to mean?" He asked sternly.

"I mean, we won quite a few Breeders Cup Races, and we have won a lot Classic races last year. Most of them, from Emily." I said and pet Emily's head.

Jones shot me a look.

"Besides her being spoiled. She's healthy, looks good. Like a real race horse." He said.

I nodded. I was still pretty mad about Jones saying Emily was spoiled, cause she's not. She's just got a Princesses personality, she's always been that way.

I saw Caitlyn drive up with a trailer behind her.

"Who is in the trailer?" I asked.

She smiles and opens the back. Duchess walks out backwards and just stands peacefully once out of the trailer. I look at Michael then back to Caitlyn and she smiles.

Then Jones snaps a lead line to Duchess, "Tack up Blitz and Emily. We will meet you out on the track."

We nod our heads and walk into the stable. Mike and Rosie meet us at the stable. Micheal came out with his crop. Jones gave Rosie a leg up on Duchess, Caitlyn gave Mike a leg up on Blitz, and I gave Micheal a leg up on Emily.

"Your call Jones." I says.

Jones turns to the 3 jockeys on their horses, "7 furlongs." They nod. Jones decided to use the starting gate because he thought it was essential. We loaded them up and learned that not only did Emily and Duchess get worked up in starting gate, but so does Blitz. Caitlyn hit the button and the gates flew open.

Celtic shot to the front. She looks over to Jones who smiled. Duchess and Emily were 2 lengths behind right next to each other. Duchess tried to break away, but Emily caught right back up.

"Woah." Nathan breaths.

Blitz started widening his lead and Duchess started to fade a little. Emily kept fighting to catch up but didn't. Of course, I saw a problem with Emily as she came down the stretch. She was laboring. Caitlyn hit her stopwatch when Blitz was done.

"1 flat."

I hit my button and looked at Emily's time, "1:05.35"

Jones hit his, "1:07.18."

"Not to bad for first run after injury." I say. She just smiles. Mikie brought Blitz around under a tight rein.

"He is so worked up." Mikie says.

"No kidding." Caitlyn says. Blitz looked like he could keep going and was still trying to relize he was done.

Duchess and Emily came around together. I saw worry on Rosie's face and in her eyes.

"What's wrong, Rosie?" Caitlyn asks walking over to her.

"I don't know. Duchess wasn't running like her usual."

"What do you mean?"

"Caitlyn, I was scaared as soon as she bursted out of that gate. She had so much energy that I wasn't ready for. I was scared she would hurt herself so I held her back and didn't ask her to pick it up the whole workout."

She looked at Jones who looked deep in thought because of her words.

"Mikie," She says.

"Yes."

"Get on Duchess and take her 5 furlongs like it was a race." She looked at Jones to get a OK and he nodded his head. Mikie took Duchess to the 5 furlong pole. I got my stop watch ready.

"Ready when you are!" I yell down to him. Duchess took off and I started my clock. She blazed the 5 furlongs as if it was nothing.

Caitlyn looked down at my watch and smile, " 45 flat."

"Caity," I look at Nathan, "You need to race her."

"Santa Anita better get ready because Duchess is about to rock their grounds at the Big 'Cap." I respond and I smile.