Through The Rain and Tears (major revisions)

Chapter Eight

-Keeneland, Blue Grass Stakes Day-

The public flipped out when they saw Bubba won the Florida Derby, so the prove he was a good horse we sent him to Kentucky, to run in the Blue Grass Stakes. I Will Remember went on to win the Wood Memorial and Gotham, and now is at Churchill Downs working to get his Garland of Roses. But if Bubba wins today, that will prove what kind of horse he is, the Blue Grass is about two weeks away from the Derby, so Bubba would be getting a shorter break than most the Derby runners. The field was made of five runners those being:

1. Blue Forest Cat 4-1
2. Twenty-Five 8-1
3. Palace Illusion 2-1
4. The Only Prince 15-1
5. Artistic 5/2

Artistic and Palace Illusion were most likely going to take the race today lightly, but Bubba was going to be serious. He may be once again the longshot but at least he's not 50-1.

Artistic is a gray colt by Tapit, he was big, stands at 17.2 hands high, he was very muscular, he was possibly going to be one of the heavy favorites on Derby Day. Then there was Palace Illusion a 16.7 hands high bay colt by Into Mischief out of Palace Rumor, he was a half to Palace Malice, who had an impressive career as a race horse.

Bubba trotted around the paddock, an occasional exited shake of the head happened here and there, and sometimes a eager buck. He look fantastic, hard to believe he was the longshot.

The paddock judge called for riders up and I gave Nicole a leg up and they followed Palace Illusion to the track.

-Nicole's POV-

It seems like since Princes last start as a 2 year old, he's improved drastically, like something in him sparked a love for competition and winning. He's faced and defeated Champion 2 Year Old Colt, I Will Remember and top colt Rundown.

The pony rider let go of Princes bridle and we cantered around for a while to warm up before going back to the pony rider and walking to the back of the gates.

"The 3 Year olds are at the gates!" A gate worker yelled and immediately the workers started loading everyone. We got in third and Palace Illusion was fourth.

We stood silently for a moment, waiting for the start, I leaned forward and looked left and then right and looked forward concentrated on the track a head.

Ring!

The gates shot and the path the the track was a head of us and we all broke, I felt Artistic slam into us and knock Prince out of stride, I quickly corrected him quickly and placed him fourth, behind Twenty-Five, Blue Forest Cat and Artistic, Palace Illusion stalked behind Prince as we entered the first turn and into the back stretch. The rail was wide open so I put Prince on the inside and he slowly moved up as we slowly progressed up the back stretch. I looked back and saw Palace Illusion moving on the outside to I urged Prince slightly and he responded. Prince ran past Artistic to take third. Then the turn came and Twenty-Five didn't handle it well and he bounced against the rail cutting us off, so I cautiously moved him outside. Then Blue Forest Cat started making a move as we entered the stretch, I hadn't really moved on Prince yet, but as Blue Forest Cat started to open I quickly reached back and tapped Prince's rear end and he seemed to drop and stretch out, he was very focused, his ears were pricked forward and he charged after Blue Forest Cat, I didn't pay attention to what could be charging after us because these two were flying. I reached back and tapped Prince's rear again and he responded tremendously. The two hooked up for a moment down the stretch but Prince didn't stay with Blue Forest Cat and he opened up quickly. I looked back to see Blue Forest Cat desperately trying to hold off Artistic and Palace Illusion but I couldn't look at the battle forever so I started to ease up Prince at the finish.

"Upset at the Florida Derby, upset at the Blue Grass! The Only Prince is the only Prince on the raise and he is going to try and claim his crown at the Derby!"

I could almost see those red roses, because Prince was peaking at just the right time. I pat his neck and trotted him towards the stands where we got cheered louder than the cheers we got at the Florida Derby. I couldn't help but smile at the sight of the racing fans and Jack, Nathan andMichael's faces as we entered the Winners Cirlce.

The Winners Circle is a place I want to be in a few weeks. But next time at Churchill Downs with roses over Prince's shoulders.