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Description
Horse: EA Iwar
Track: Santa Anita
Race: Las Virgenes Stakes held in TJC's 2018 Major Race Qualifiers
Results: 2nd 2018 Major Race Qualifiers :: February Results

Features:
WW Sheer Luck
Connachan Reference
HNPT's Peppercini And Cream

-~- -~-~- -~-

Many different expressions hung on the faces of the Ethereal Aces team as Iwar rounded the last turn at Northlands Park. She had been sitting perfectly in her stalker position all the way around the track, and she seemed to launch like a rocket the very moment Jake asked her to go. The team didn't have to wait to see her five lengths ahead to know what was going to happen. They had seen her training all week long. This particular front runner was notorious for not finishing strong, and Iwar had been very calm on the trip around the track. She wanted to finally be allowed to run. She accelerated and the frontrunner immediately decelerated. The effect of his decreasing energy was probably compounded by the filly passing him. One length, two lengths, three... The frontrunner faded into the distance as Iwar bounded forward, ears picked forward.
Jake roared as the pair crossed the finish line. Alyssa clasped her hands over her mouth as she let out a small scream. Jess and Ethan embraced while Jess bounced and sent her hair flying into Ethan's face. Richard wanted to seem cool and indifferent, but couldn't keep a grin from spreading from ear to ear. After some major celebration and a quick photo in the winner's circle, they all began to ask each other a question: what next?
No one could remember exactly who tossed the idea out first, but there was one prevailing answer: send her to Santa Anita. See if she could keep up the pace in a graded race. She was clearly the most talented horse that Ethereal Acres had ever owned, and they could always take her back to local tracks if she didn't continue to thrive.

Iwar's appetite didn't change at all the day after the race, and she was just as alert and social as always. With her recovery from the race being a non issue, the team decided to ship her straight to Santa Anita. Shipping her to Santa Anita via air was simply beyond Ethereal Acre's financial capabilities, so Iwar would have to ship by trailer. It was absolutely going to be a multi day journey, and this probably wouldn't even be possible if she wasn't such a good traveler. Yo-yos were absolutely to be kept in the cabin any time that Iwar was outside of the trailer during this trip, Alyssa had to remind Jake and Liam.
After some very rushed planning and coordination from the team, Iwar was shuffled onto the trailer and pointed back to the states. Navigating around winter storms was aggravating for the team, and one night Alyssa even resorted to calling some connections to make an abrupt stop in Idaho due to unexpected road closures. Delaying travel for a day didn't seem to be bad for the filly, though, as she enjoyed the attention of the stable owner's star struck children that hadn't seen a thoroughbred up close before. Luckily the roads opened again the following day and traffic was moving at a decent speed considering the recent weather. The crew couldn't chug along at 60mph, but they definitely weren't crawling along, either. The available radio stations (country and western, which were clearly separate genres based on the stations) and lack of network availability caused several arguments between the crew and ultimately an agreement that they would load an MP3 player with mutually enjoyed songs before attempting a cross country journey again. Getting in range of the Salt Lake City stations was a godsend for the team--until they passed through the city and lost service once more.

-~-~-

Everyone was relieved to finally arrive at Santa Anita. Though Alyssa, Richard, and Jake were intimately familiar with the track and settling Iwar into her new stall wasn't stressful, all three experienced a bit more anxiety than before. This time they were in higher positions and had more risk and responsibility. They also had all of their eggs in one basket with only one horse being at the track. The two year olds back at home were being baby sat by partners, and while Alyssa trusted her friends dearly, she was also becoming anxious to check in on their progress personally. She planned on staying for a bit to help Richard become familiar with how Santa Anita worked (and how chaotic workouts in the mornings could be), and then she would go back to Washington for a few days before returning back to put Iwar on a more strenuous workout schedule.
Iwar herself seemed somewhat intimidated by the hustle and bustle of Santa Anita. While this was pretty expected, Alyssa was also somewhat surprised to see the filly being out socialized and a bit overwhelmed. Some part of her thought that there was no such thing as too much interaction for the filly.

-~-~-

By the time that Alyssa returned to Santa Anita, Iwar seemed to be fairly adjusted to the larger crowds. Several trainers in her barn also complained that she'd made such good friends with the stable pets that they didn't visit the other horses as often anymore. Although Alyssa laughed at their jokes about having to kick Iwar out so that the other horses could get some friendship again, Alyssa took Richard to the side and asked if Ethan had been giving the pets excessive treats like he so often tried to do with Iwar. Richard answered that she had been very strict on not letting him give Iwar "too much crap", and he had seemed pouty about the instructions, so, maybe.
Alyssa was delighted that Iwar maintained her drive and seemed to become stronger with every workout. After drawing post position two for the Las Virgenes, Alyssa focused the last few exercises on setting up situations where Iwar may have to weave herself out of traffic. The filly surpassed Alyssa's expectation, and hopes were high for the filly's third race.

There was an impending line of storms on the day of the race, and Alyssa was surprised that the race hadn't been cancelled or at least delayed until after the storm had passed. There had been admittedly few strikes of lightning reported from the storms, but Alyssa figured that even a single report would be enough to delay the race. She grumbled to Richard that they must be considering a loss of profit of showing the video to online services at the exactly scheduled time, likely weighing in to the decision making. Iwar seemed to accept the rain when it began to pour over the horses during the post parade, but her annoyed ear flicks assured Alyssa that she didn't quite favor it as much as she had favored the snow at Portland Meadows and Northlands Park. Alyssa just hoped that the lightning and thunder would hold off until the horses were put back in their stables. For Iwar's sake, she didn't want any new distractions, but Alyssa also was concerned that a bolt of lightning at the wrong moment, shining off the sloppy track or off the metallic gates, could cause a horse to panic and create a danger for the rest of the field. Ultimately, as the horses neared the starting gate she tried to put these fears to rest and just enjoy Iwar's first graded race. What happened next was nothing that she could control.

-~- -~-~- -~-

Word Count: 1,222

Artists's Comments:
It's really confusing to figure out Santa Anita's rails. Basically, an optional part of the turf course (probably for sprint races) starts behind the main oblong track and comes down a hill before crossing the dirt track and continuing on to the center turf course. In this image, the turf is shown both to the inside of the dirt track and coming down the hill. The cross over section would occur just to the left of where this image ends. There's also a concrete "track" on the inside of the turf track for vehicles to drive on. All in all, it is a mess of rails and I was very confused trying to figure everything out. I removed both the chain link fence in the background and some of the extra foliage and the building in the back because I really wanted to show of the sky given that the weather was going to be so awesome. I'm a storm chaser (or was, moving out of the Midwest has pretty much taken away my opportunities), and couldn't pass up the opportunity to draw a cool storm structure.

References and Sources:
Background, Sheer Luck, and Pippa: by Jlvsclrk on Wikimedia Commons
Connachan and Iwar: Horse Racing 59 by JullelinPhotography
Storm clouds: by Will Leverett

Licensing
I hereby license this work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Feel free to use this work as a reference, build upon it, or share it, just remember that you must give credit and must also license your new work under this license if building upon it or sharing it.

Description
Horse: EA Iwar
Track: Santa Anita
Race: Las Virgenes Stakes held in TJC's 2018 Major Race Qualifiers
Results: 2nd 2018 Major Race Qualifiers :: February Results

Features:
WW Sheer Luck
Connachan Reference
HNPT's Peppercini And Cream

-~- -~-~- -~-

Many different expressions hung on the faces of the Ethereal Aces team as Iwar rounded the last turn at Northlands Park. She had been sitting perfectly in her stalker position all the way around the track, and she seemed to launch like a rocket the very moment Jake asked her to go. The team didn't have to wait to see her five lengths ahead to know what was going to happen. They had seen her training all week long. This particular front runner was notorious for not finishing strong, and Iwar had been very calm on the trip around the track. She wanted to finally be allowed to run. She accelerated and the frontrunner immediately decelerated. The effect of his decreasing energy was probably compounded by the filly passing him. One length, two lengths, three... The frontrunner faded into the distance as Iwar bounded forward, ears picked forward.
Jake roared as the pair crossed the finish line. Alyssa clasped her hands over her mouth as she let out a small scream. Jess and Ethan embraced while Jess bounced and sent her hair flying into Ethan's face. Richard wanted to seem cool and indifferent, but couldn't keep a grin from spreading from ear to ear. After some major celebration and a quick photo in the winner's circle, they all began to ask each other a question: what next?
No one could remember exactly who tossed the idea out first, but there was one prevailing answer: send her to Santa Anita. See if she could keep up the pace in a graded race. She was clearly the most talented horse that Ethereal Acres had ever owned, and they could always take her back to local tracks if she didn't continue to thrive.

Iwar's appetite didn't change at all the day after the race, and she was just as alert and social as always. With her recovery from the race being a non issue, the team decided to ship her straight to Santa Anita. Shipping her to Santa Anita via air was simply beyond Ethereal Acre's financial capabilities, so Iwar would have to ship by trailer. It was absolutely going to be a multi day journey, and this probably wouldn't even be possible if she wasn't such a good traveler. Yo-yos were absolutely to be kept in the cabin any time that Iwar was outside of the trailer during this trip, Alyssa had to remind Jake and Liam.
After some very rushed planning and coordination from the team, Iwar was shuffled onto the trailer and pointed back to the states. Navigating around winter storms was aggravating for the team, and one night Alyssa even resorted to calling some connections to make an abrupt stop in Idaho due to unexpected road closures. Delaying travel for a day didn't seem to be bad for the filly, though, as she enjoyed the attention of the stable owner's star struck children that hadn't seen a thoroughbred up close before. Luckily the roads opened again the following day and traffic was moving at a decent speed considering the recent weather. The crew couldn't chug along at 60mph, but they definitely weren't crawling along, either. The available radio stations (country and western, which were clearly separate genres based on the stations) and lack of network availability caused several arguments between the crew and ultimately an agreement that they would load an MP3 player with mutually enjoyed songs before attempting a cross country journey again. Getting in range of the Salt Lake City stations was a godsend for the team--until they passed through the city and lost service once more.

-~-~-

Everyone was relieved to finally arrive at Santa Anita. Though Alyssa, Richard, and Jake were intimately familiar with the track and settling Iwar into her new stall wasn't stressful, all three experienced a bit more anxiety than before. This time they were in higher positions and had more risk and responsibility. They also had all of their eggs in one basket with only one horse being at the track. The two year olds back at home were being baby sat by partners, and while Alyssa trusted her friends dearly, she was also becoming anxious to check in on their progress personally. She planned on staying for a bit to help Richard become familiar with how Santa Anita worked (and how chaotic workouts in the mornings could be), and then she would go back to Washington for a few days before returning back to put Iwar on a more strenuous workout schedule.
Iwar herself seemed somewhat intimidated by the hustle and bustle of Santa Anita. While this was pretty expected, Alyssa was also somewhat surprised to see the filly being out socialized and a bit overwhelmed. Some part of her thought that there was no such thing as too much interaction for the filly.

-~-~-

By the time that Alyssa returned to Santa Anita, Iwar seemed to be fairly adjusted to the larger crowds. Several trainers in her barn also complained that she'd made such good friends with the stable pets that they didn't visit the other horses as often anymore. Although Alyssa laughed at their jokes about having to kick Iwar out so that the other horses could get some friendship again, Alyssa took Richard to the side and asked if Ethan had been giving the pets excessive treats like he so often tried to do with Iwar. Richard answered that she had been very strict on not letting him give Iwar "too much crap", and he had seemed pouty about the instructions, so, maybe.
Alyssa was delighted that Iwar maintained her drive and seemed to become stronger with every workout. After drawing post position two for the Las Virgenes, Alyssa focused the last few exercises on setting up situations where Iwar may have to weave herself out of traffic. The filly surpassed Alyssa's expectation, and hopes were high for the filly's third race.

There was an impending line of storms on the day of the race, and Alyssa was surprised that the race hadn't been cancelled or at least delayed until after the storm had passed. There had been admittedly few strikes of lightning reported from the storms, but Alyssa figured that even a single report would be enough to delay the race. She grumbled to Richard that they must be considering a loss of profit of showing the video to online services at the exactly scheduled time, likely weighing in to the decision making. Iwar seemed to accept the rain when it began to pour over the horses during the post parade, but her annoyed ear flicks assured Alyssa that she didn't quite favor it as much as she had favored the snow at Portland Meadows and Northlands Park. Alyssa just hoped that the lightning and thunder would hold off until the horses were put back in their stables. For Iwar's sake, she didn't want any new distractions, but Alyssa also was concerned that a bolt of lightning at the wrong moment, shining off the sloppy track or off the metallic gates, could cause a horse to panic and create a danger for the rest of the field. Ultimately, as the horses neared the starting gate she tried to put these fears to rest and just enjoy Iwar's first graded race. What happened next was nothing that she could control.

-~- -~-~- -~-

Word Count: 1,222

Artists's Comments:
It's really confusing to figure out Santa Anita's rails. Basically, an optional part of the turf course (probably for sprint races) starts behind the main oblong track and comes down a hill before crossing the dirt track and continuing on to the center turf course. In this image, the turf is shown both to the inside of the dirt track and coming down the hill. The cross over section would occur just to the left of where this image ends. There's also a concrete "track" on the inside of the turf track for vehicles to drive on. All in all, it is a mess of rails and I was very confused trying to figure everything out. I removed both the chain link fence in the background and some of the extra foliage and the building in the back because I really wanted to show of the sky given that the weather was going to be so awesome. I'm a storm chaser (or was, moving out of the Midwest has pretty much taken away my opportunities), and couldn't pass up the opportunity to draw a cool storm structure.

References and Sources:
Background, Sheer Luck, and Pippa: by Jlvsclrk on Wikimedia Commons
Connachan and Iwar: Horse Racing 59 by JullelinPhotography
Storm clouds: by Will Leverett

Licensing
I hereby license this work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Feel free to use this work as a reference, build upon it, or share it, just remember that you must give credit and must also license your new work under this license if building upon it or sharing it.