flight of lynara

[S u N f r O s T ~]

FORBIDDEN TO FLY AND HENNA TURATH
LYNARA'S KINGDOM AND AMBER BLACK

FLY'S AND LYNARA'S WORKOUT FOR THE JUST A TROT FUTURITY

The first leg of SOPS's own Youth Challenge series greeted them with open arms. In just over a week, Forbidden To Fly and Lynara's Kingdom would be duking it out with two others, thus far, in the Jusy A Trot Futurity. The race was seven furlongs on the dirt, a distance that was bread and butter for the two year olds. The jockeys hoped to make an exhibition of their mounts' respective talents come race day. And a unique exhibition it would be. The horses they rode were extremely unique; Lynara was the most temperamental filly the stable had over owned, and Fly was casually known as the "Alarm Clock" due to his incessant need to be loud. Many riders couldn't stand the colt's hyperactivity. He never appeared to be listening and was consistently a pain in the butt.

Today, the pair were full of high spirits. Fly was just coming off of a win in the Alot To Live Up To Stakes. It had been the win to break him into the ranks of the elite two year olds that were grade four. Lynara, on the other hand, was far off of that mark. She had started out the season very promisingly, and Amber had entered her against older horses as a way to gauge her current maturity. She had experienced many losses to them, and those losses were now telling on her performance against other two year olds. Since then, Amber had recognized that she had made the incorrect decision and was keeping Lynara in two year old only races in the hope that her performance would improve. Lynara had been doing excellently earlier in the year, winning her first two starts. However, she had been excessively moody after all those losses, and was more difficult to control than ever.

The field for the Futurity was small but good. Paradise Island was in gate three. She had just been narrowly defeated by Eternal Phantom in the Horseshoe Futurity last week, and Krystal was still smiling about it. Amber and Henna both hoped to replicate the effort with their own mounts. Seven furlongs was the bread and butter distance for their mounts, and that conferred an advantage to them. After Dusk from Star Thoroughbreds took gate four. Her last start had been a win in the Eagle Cup during the first week of September. It was interesting that she hadn't made an appearance since then. Nonetheless, she had beaten both Fly and Lynara in that race, and they wanted payback. Thankfully, Fly was in good form after that win and would be ready to meet her challenge, while Lynara was being guided by an ever more knowledgeable Amber. It would be a tough race, that was for sure.

Lynara fed off of Fly's loudness. She tossed her head and attempted more than once to bolt. And when Amber finally asked the gray filly to move, she refused to, willfully ignoring her rider. Fly was already ahead of them by about four lengths before Lynara suddenly burst forward, her natural competitiveness not liking that Fly was so far ahead. They proceeded through warm up in this fashion, Lynara occasionally not listening to Amber only to suddenly sprint up when Fly got too far ahead. Fly didn't react to Lynara's temper at all. He just kept cantering along, whinnying every other stride or so, appearing to be off in his own world.

Eventually the pair was galloped, and then sprinted. They were let all out for a furlong. Lynara, being especially competitive after warm up, was eager to go to the front, so she did. She sprinted, legs flashing, almost leaving Fly behind. Fly wasn't focused; Henna had to work hard to get him to realize that dirt was being kicked in their faces by the flashy gray filly ahead of them. When Henna finally made the connection with Fly, the gray colt was off and running after her. Gray versus gray, they strode together through the final furlong of their workout, neither giving in. Eventually Lynara managed to snatch the win when Fly, once again, lost concentration. Henna Turath looked exasperated at her colt's behavior as she slowed him down, while Lynara did not appear to notice her victory. She was too busy challenging Amber for control again.

Some light steam rose from the two horses as they cooled down at yet another canter. The antics from earlier were still being repeated, and it made both jockeys grin. They felt ready to show the world just what their horses were capable of.