Empire of Mine training at WBS.

The sun had barely risen over the horizon, the sun’s rosy gold fingertips wrapping around the rugged edges and tips of the mountains in the distance and hugging onto the dew covered leaves and pine needles of the forest as well. Empire of Mine hadn’t left White Blood Stables after her maiden win, which consisted of her dominating the field and winning with an eighteen length lead which was quite impressive in the eyes of her trainers and owner. So this lovely morning, cool and slightly cloudy, the beautiful bay mare could be found breezing on the dirt track, which had been nicely harrowed and fluffed.

In only a short amount of time it almost seemed like Empire of Mine had slightly matured, her muscles rippled delicately beneath her smooth bay coat and her eyes were wide with excitement as her rider nudged her forward into a steady and rhythmic canter along the rail. Her body seemed to levitate off the earth elegantly as she was pushed into a gallop, her stride long and her legs eating up the earth as she pushed into another, faster gear.
The mare’s trainers, and other track goers, watched patiently from the inside rail near the designated “finish line” for this particular workout. Numerous seconds ticked by on multiple stop watches and narrowed eyes fell upon the quick mare as she charged down the backstretch, her lungs opened up and her rider nudged her forward a little more to unlock her final gear. The mare inhaled and exhaled sharply, releasing a sound that resembled the turbo flutter in a supercar.

After flying past the designated line all the stopwatches were clicked. Satisfied with the times the trainers and watchers returned to their morning coffee, papers and just casual talk as the bay mare was eased up from her hard gallop. Her neck curled as she slowed from a gallop to a slow and smooth canter once more as she was slowed and moved towards the outside rail to cool off. The jockey praised the quiet mare as she didn’t throw a fit and didn’t pull the reins out from his hands. From a smooth canter, to a trot and then to a walk, the shiny, sweaty bay mare was walked to the gap in the railing that went towards the barns, there she was led past the opposing horses and their riders as well as their owners and trainers.

Everybody gawked at the mare as she passed, nobody knew of any horses beating their maiden race by eighteen and a half lengths so she was something to be reckoned with. After her rider dismounted and she was untacked, washed and led back to her stall, the lovely Empire of Mine enjoyed a nice, cool bucket of water and a nice rub down from a groom that had accompanied her and her jockey, Aleksandra Volkov to the track. Everybody had high hopes for the mare as she showed early promise in her career and her workouts were going well but only time would tell.