one more fight

EUPHORION AND FURIOUS PASSION WORK FOR THE BREEDER'S CUP MARATHON

Dismounting Silent Fury and swinging up into his half brother Furious Passion's saddle, Marissa thought that, in all truth, Furious Passion had probably peaked about a year ago. His race performance hadn't been nearly as good this year as last year, considering he'd won the Triple Crown and the Dubai World Cup, and this year he'd been in the winner's circle just twice. But she still thought he had it in him to go for one more win, and a second Breeder's Cup win. They began their warm up on the dirt track, avoiding the fast workers by sticking to the outside rail. Euphorion and Sarah warmed up a little way behind them, since Ryan thought he was a prince and Passion thought he could be an assassin.

They were entered in the Breeder's Cup Marathon. It would not be an easy race, even though most of the horses entered were probably not as good as they had been in previous years. In gate one was Knight Rousseau. The four year old colt would have been a huge competitor for Passion in the TC last year had he not been taken off the track for more than a year. Now, he'd made a good comeback with one win, two seconds and a third in the past couple months. His record presently stood at 20-5-4-4. Xalbadora was next. The four year old Close Racing filly wasn't very consistent, but could pull a surprise at times. Her record was currently 56-7-8-8.

Dashing In The Firelight from Stride of Perfection Stables was next, and would likely be their biggest competition. Like Passion, she had run a killer season last year but this year seemed to have passed her peak. Still, she'd done better than the young stallion. Her record was 50-14-12-7 at this time. The next gate would contain Euphorion. He was the youngest of the field, but had run the best season of all of them. He'd won six times, placed second seven times and third four times, with five places out of the top three bringing his career record to 33-10-9-7. The colt was grade two, and could quite possibly go in the favourite to win.

Furious Passion had won twice this year, placed second five times and third three times in sixteen starts. He was probably a long shot, but Marissa still believed he had it in him. There was no front runner in the field, so it would most likely be either Euphorion or Knight Rousseau who set the pace. Sarah was adamant that she would run Euphorion in his usual position however, so they just had to hope that the Akita Rose horse would step up. Otherwise the race was likely to be quite slow paced, because no one else would want the lead.

As instructed, the pair accelerated into gallop at the four furlong pole. They stayed neck and neck as they traveled around the turn into the stretch. Marissa waited for Euphorion to make his move patiently. Back when Passion was two, they'd discovered that he got bored if he got too far in the lead and lost interest in winning. That was why he was run in the closer position, so he had to work all the way to the end to win. Finally Euphorion put on a burst of speed, pulling away from Passion quickly. Passion immediately began to accelerate too, not about to be left behind. His legs were two inches longer that Euphorion's, and as he reached full speed he began to gain on the colt gradually.

Once again, it was going to be close. But Euphorion held out and reached the wire a neck before his stablemate, who then went on to have a tantrum about slowing down. The secret plan had worked. Now Euphorion would be confident, and Furious Passion would be furious about losing so closely, and would work extra hard in the race to beat Ryan, and whoever else challenged him. They were ready to run a Marathon.