A Love Affair. [F]

Horse: Internal Affair
Discipline: Flat Racing - conditioning workout
Training with: Aaron Emerson

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Weyland took the chestnut filly in hand, the morning fog still lingering over the track as the sun lurked on the horizon. He was settling into the area and Innie here was settling in right along with him at Rose Park Stables. He'd met the owner Liam and after seeing him ride he's hired him on the spot. It felt good to be this close to Santa Anita and large west coast tracks, hell, it felt good to just be out from under his family's scrutiny and on his own. He'd managed to buy the juvenile filly off her prior owner before he's packed up and left to come here. He had an eye for good horseflesh and Innie had screamed speed and stamina and raw talent. He knew he had to take this filly under his wing and bring her to success. She could do it and he was determined to start her career here with a bang.

The filly danced at the end of her lines, mouth playing with the bit in excitement and anticipation as she spotted the track. He patted her neck in a soothing motion as he paused her in front of the mounting block and climbed up quickly while the filly stood still for a brief moment. Settling into the saddle he composed himself as Innie shifted in excitement sideways beneath him. He tracked with her movement and then redirected her attention into a forward motion as they rode through the gap onto the track. The filly snorted, her breath like tendrils of smoke in the cold morning air. He clucked to the filly as he asked her for a warm up trot. He felt her limbs loosen and her stride became more fluid after a two furlong trot and then he asked her of a gallop. Her stride lengthened on cue as Innie responded to his touch, ever eager to go faster as any racing youngster.

He clocked as the poles ran by in flashing signs, marking their time and distance as he gradually upped her pace for three more furlong...and then the final two he relinquished her head for the final two furlongs for the mile workout. She was like a push-button, instantly on as she displayed an amazing turn of foot, her head reaching and bobbing, her stride lengthening and eating up the terrain. He sat poised in the stirrups and hunched close to her body as the closed the two furlong blow out in seconds. He rated the filly properly allowing her to come down from her high as he praised the filly's hard work on the track. The thing was it wasn't really work, for neither horse nor  riders. No this game of racing was a love affair for both man and beast and they were more than eager to make their racing debut sometime here soon.