A True Champion| A Special Horseracing Story

This horseracing story depicts the true spirit and willpower of a racehorse when he participated in the  Triple Crown series. The story is geared up with true emotion between the horse and his rider…

A True Champion| A Special Horseracing Story

By: Noreen Evans

This was the moment. He was sure that no other horse felt the same way he did. Nervous excitement charged through him like an electric shock. He could feel his Jockey Balancing tensely upon his back. He could hear the other horses snorting, their Jockeys whispering encouraging words to their mounts. Breathing in deeply he could smell the sweat that was surfacing upon the other horses shoulders and flanks as well as his own. The smell of the Jockeys’ boot polish also filled his nostrils and he exhaled to rid himself of the unpleasant odor. In the work of a few seconds he noticed these things while the crowd became silent.

Then the ringing of the bell! “This is it!” he thought as he burst out from the gate, “this is what I have worked my whole life for.” And he shot to the third place position. The race seemed to happen in slow motion, giving him the same feeling that he had felt in the previous two races of the Triple Crown series. Now was his final moment of glory and he felt the intense need to please the fans that screamed their encouragement all around him. Pulling up from third place, he ran side by side with the bay on his left, his nose inches away from his shoulder. “Now!” His Jockey yelled, leaning farther over his neck and showing him the whip. This he had no need to use for he was shooting ahead already. But no! The bay horse to the left was moving up as well, and the dark brown was moving up between them. Now is the final quarter of the race and he is giving his all, and he was sure it would be enough! He was winning, but what was the pain coursing through his front leg so close to the end of the race? It cant be very bad, the jockey was still urging him on, not noticing at first the uncomfortable motions that his horse was making. “Push on, push on I have to win this!” he was thinking, “no!” he tries to say to his Jockey, “don’t make me stop!”

And now he is standing, one leg off the ground in obvious pain and only a third place finish and his jockey crying beside him, not because they lost, but because of his pain. But what is this he hears? A reporting crew coming up to the Jockey. They are asking him questions. “Are you disappointed not to ride this to the win when you were so close?” they ask him. And he puts his head down in defeat, yet the Jockey answers to everyone’s complete surprise, “I could never be disappointed in this horse, there will never be a horse to show so much heart and willpower as this one did, I am sure that I will never have the chance to ride a better horse. This one is a winner in everyone’s heart today.” And it was true. Good show Charismatic, it was defiantly worth the work.

By: Noreen Evans Loosely based upon the story of the Triple Crown races of 1999