Ladies In Waiting

Story added.  I had the awesome luck of getting dead last in the RNG portion of the judging, so I figured I'd write a story to match

Queen's Plate

Horse: Falkens Srslyimabiach
Jockey: Joshua Sterns
Owner/trainer: Falken Stud/Joshua Sterns
Extras: What lies in the mists ahead

The journey to Canada had gone both better and worse than Joshua had hoped.  Siri arrived safe and sound, but the travel seemed to have stressed her and tired her out.  In the days leading up to the race, his focus was on getting her as mentally relaxed and physically energetic as possible.  The thought of having come all this way to be defeated by a bit of jet lag was not particularly encouraging.

It was a competitive field, but Joshua was a veteran jockey, and as the post parade began he refused to let himself feel any nervousness or intimidation.  He couldn't do anything about the other horses; instead, he had to trust his own.  Siri seemed alert today at least, and her excitement grew at the sight of the gate.  The filly wanted to run.

And run she did, but the race was a nightmare from the start.  She broke clumsily, stumbling out of the gate and getting a faceful of dirt from her neighbor.  They were at least able to catch up to the pack fairly quickly, but there was little room to maneuver, and for the majority of the race Siri was forced to patiently wait in the back for an opening to sneak through.

Coming up on the final stretch, the group thinned a bit and Joshua was able to move her up, along with a couple other hind runners.  Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a chestnut filly being pulled up by her jockey, recognizing her as Catchmeifyoucan; there was no time to ponder this occurrence however, and he simply categorized it as yet another stroke of bad luck in a rather unlucky race, before Siri dug her heels in and battled for the lead beside the striking pinto Lilly Marlene across the finish line.

Even in this battle, there was no victor; the judges couldn't tell which horse crossed the line first, and deemed it a tie for fifth place.  Joshua returned to the stable with a thoroughly tired Siri, patting her neck affectionately.  "Better luck next time," he told her, reassuring himself more than the filly, "We might be down for the moment, but we aren't out yet."

PD Catchmeifyoucan © painted-cowgirl
MFS Lilly Marlene © MistyofSunrise
Art & Siri © Helsinge
Referenced from own photo

Numbers yanked from this neat creation Queen's Plate - 2015 and saddle cloth colors derived from standard set according to teh googles.  Everyone's got a different system but that's mine xD