New York, New York(R)

I had this at Whitebrook before I was banned.

Twenty year old Melanie Graham sat on the back of Time is Imperfect, a gray six-year-old gelding, looking over Aqueduct's track. It was almost two months after she told everyone at Whitebrook her decision. Closing her eyes, she remembered what happened as the gelding trotted down the track
Everyone at Whitebrook went out that night to celebrate Wonder's Star's win in the Breeder's Cup Classic. The four-year-old chestnut colt had lost by a head bob the year before to Celtic Mist, but he came back in his four year old season to win the Classic triumphantly.
"I'm moving to New York," she said that night at dinner, "to expand my racing career."
Melanie glanced over at Cindy after announcing her decision. The young woman's face was full of shock. Cindy's choice in leaving Whitebrook and going to New York years ago inspired Melanie to do the same. Only, Melanie hoped to be more successful, due to the fact that she already had some graded stakes wins and a lot of experience.
"Melanie, why did you decide to do this?" Cindy finally asked, breaking the eerie silence in the room.
"Well, New York always has a racing meet going on, making it possible for me to race at any time of the year," Melanie answered, as though the answer was obvious. "Plus, with all of the experience I have in racing, I can fully establish my career."
Not everyone in the room fully agreed with Melanie. Especially Jazz. That night, they argued over Melanie's decision.
"Jazz, I want to become a professional jockey, and staying at Whitebrook isn't going help me establish my career," Melanie told him.
"But what about Image and Jinx?" Jazz replied back tersely, referring to Hi Jinx, the three-year-old colt that he owned and Melanie trained and rode. Jazz also owned Perfect Image, who won the Kentuck Derby the previous year. She was in foal to Celtic Mist. "Image is going to have her first foal soon!"
"You can have Ashleigh and Mike train them!" Melanie argued. "I'm going to New York, and that's final!"
Melanie shook her head, trying to focus her attention to the gelding she was riding. "Stop, Time," Melanie told the gelding, who was trying to cut loose into a gallop. Giving a firm tug on the reins, Melanie guided him towards the outer edge of the track, asking for a canter.
"Let's see. Rod said canter to the eighth pole, and a slow gallop around the track," Melanie muttered, getting ready to ask Time to gallop. "Then we can do our five furlong breeze when we reach the half pole."
Time tossed his head, and started to gallop as Melanie gave him the cue. Ok, so maybe this isn't a slow gallop, but this might prevent him from acting up. Melanie thought grimly. Though he was a gelding, Time acted as though he was every part the stallion. Melanie dreaded to work on him, even though she only rode him about three times, since he spent most of the time rearing into other horses and throwing her off.
"Almost there," Melanie told the gelding, getting ready for their breeze.
As they passed the half pole, Melanie crouched lower, asking the gelding to run. Time responded with a quick snort, and extended his stride. Rod Johnson, the gelding's trainer and who Melanie rode and worked for, told her not to expect much from his first breeze. "Time is just recovering from a pulled tendon, and he is a bottom class claimer," the young trainer told her.
Melanie refused to think that Time couldn't run. She knew the gelding loved to run, and if treated and ridden correctly, he could run against allowance horses.
So far, so good. Melanie thought, smiling to herself. She counted about 23 for the quarter, and hoped that she could prove Rod wrong.
Suddenly, Time skittered towards the center of the track, bumping into a brown filly who was galloping by. Melanie quickly tried to pull him away, as she watched as the filly's exercise rider pulled her up.
"Get that damn horse away from my filly," the exercise rider said. "I don't want any type of sh*t to disturb my filly, especially that bottom class claimer of yours."
Melanie frowned. Why would he be saying that? There weren't any big stakes races this week, so the filly couldn't be stakes racer.
It then hit her. That filly was Lady Express, the Breeder's Cup Distaff winner. Lady Express was stabled at Aqueduct after the Breeder's Cup was over, since she was privately owned. "Oh, I'm sorry," Melanie quickly said. Time stamped his foot, and gave a loud snort, eager to cause more trouble. "My horse seems to be having an attitude today."
"I can see," the exercise rider muttered, asking his horse to trot.
Melanie looked down at Time. "You devil, bumping into Lady Express. Can't you be polite towards the ladies at least?"
Time tossed his head. "For that, I'm going to make you do a slow canter around the track one more time before we head back," Melanie told him.
After going around the track at a slow canter, Melanie brought the gelding down to a walk. Rod casually walked up, his stopwatch in his hand. "Nice workout until he bumped into the filly," he said.
"What was his time?"
Rod smiled. "22 and 3. Pretty damn good for a bottom class claimer if you ask me."

Melanie walked into the saddling paddock later on for the sixth race, wearing the orange and blue silks of Empire Racing Stables. She was riding This Dream, a bright bay two year filly, in a claiming race. The filly had slowly been dropped down in class, never placing above fifth.
"She likes to be up in the front," Rod told Melanie as he gave her a leg up. His sleek blonde hair was combed back, and his green eyes sparkled, looking every bit of the 25 year old he was. "Just keep in about third or second, she should be able to stay in the front since it's only a mile."
Melanie nodded. "I'll do my best."
Rod looked up, and gave her a smile. "Knowing you, this filly will probably win."

Melanie wrapped her fingers through the filly's mane, getting ready for the race to begin. Looking up, she saw the turf track in front of her. Dream danced on her toes, making Melanie look back through Dream's ears. "Easy," Melanie whispered.
The gates opened, and Melanie felt her horse give a huge leap out of the gate, trying to avoid being crushed by the horses by her. Melanie brought Dream up in third, and guided her to the rail. She could hear the announcer calling the race, saying that they did the half mile in 49 seconds flat. "Good," Melanie whispered.
A snort made Melanie whip her head around. Good Riddance was at Dream's flank, and gaining with every stride. Suddenly, a wall of horses passed by Dream. "No, this can't be," Melanie cried.
Kneading her hands on Dream's neck desperately, Melanie could feel no response coming from the filly. Using her crop as a last resort, Melanie started to hit Dream on the shoulder, urging her to dig in. "Come on!" Melanie cried desperately.
The filly didn't respond to the whip until after they hit the wire, dead last. It was then when she started to pass by the horses. Melanie groaned. Riding bottom class claimers was discouraging.
"Once again I place last," Melanie muttered.
"Hey Graham! What happened to those top graded horses you used to ride?" one jockey called over to her. "Not good enough to ride them anymore?"
"You didn't hear? She decided she was too god for them, and came up here to ride claimers," another jockey said. "Now she thinks she can make total losers win!"
The other jockey snickered. "Hell, I wish I was stupid enough to think that!"
Melanie felt a sting of tears come to her eyes, refusing to lose her composure in front of the other jockeys. "Come on Dream, let's go see Rod," Melanie whispered, asking for the filly to trot back to the gap.
Rod was at the gap, shading his eyes from the sun. When he saw Melanie's face, he said, "Other jockeys making fun of you again?"
Melanie nimbly nodded as she jumped out of the saddle. "They're right though. I came from riding some of the best horses in the country, to here in New York, hoping to establish my career. I thought that maybe I could bring the best out of some claimers, and maybe ride in a few stakes races."
"No, don't think that you're at fault. Some horses aren't meant to race and win," Rod replied. "I think maybe we should this filly in a sprint instead. She had great front running speeding, and might do well as a sprinter."
Melanie nodded, and gave Dream a pat on the rump. "You tried your best, and that's all that matters."
"You did too," Rod added. "I know that I can't cheer you up about the race, but I know someone that will."
Melanie looked around Rod to see Jazz standing by the saddling paddock, watching the horses racing in the seventh race walk around for inspection. "Jazz!" Melanie cried, handing the reins to Rod.
Jazz turned around, and smiled. "Melanie!" Running over to her, he gave her hug. "I haven't seen you since you left Kentucky!" Jazz, Melanie's boyfriend for over a year, was the lead singer in the band Pegasus. After Melanie left for New York, Jazz flew to Atlanta to work on Pegasus's next album.
"I know," Melanie said, giving Jazz a hug back. "It's great to see you, but I've got to go weigh in and shower. Can you meet me at the saddling paddock in an hour?"
"Sure," Jazz replied. "See you then."

"I cannot tell you how discouraging it is to ride claimers, and never come close to winning," Melanie told Jazz as they walked up the stairs to get to Melanie's apartment. Jazz had told Melanie that he took the week off, and was free to spend his whole week with her.
"Must be, especially since you're used to riding Whitebrook's top-of-the-line horses," Jazz replied.
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp "Don't remind me," Melanie muttered, taking out her keys. "Here we are."
Unlocking the door, Melanie and Jazz entered her apartment. Melanie smiled. She had used her purse earnings to buy the apartment and furniture, and was very proud to say it was her own. Situated in the heart of Manhatten, Melanie was able to get to the track with ease and have the convience of several delis and stores nearby to go to.
"Thanks so much for contacing Sherise and helping me get this apartment," Melanie told Jazz. "I love this place."
Before Jazz could answer, someone knocked on the door. Melanie walked over to the door and answered it.
"Hey, hey, hey! Look who it is!" A young black woman said. "My gosh! I haven't seen you since we graduated!"
Melanie smiled. "Hey Sherise, look who followed me home." Sherise, the 21-year-old daughter of the owner of the apartment building, was one of Jazz's friends in high school. When Jazz found out that Melanie wanted to buy her own apartment, he quickly contacted Sherise, who leased the apartment to Melanie. After Melanie moved in, she quickly became good friends with the young, outgoing woman.
Sherise waved her hand. "All I had to do to see who was here was listen to your voice Mel. I could tell that Jazz was here because you sounded really excited and happy."
Melanie laughed. "Well, you haven't been seeing how terrible it's been. Seeing a familar face really lifts the spirit."
"Uh huh," Sherise replied. "It's more than just that. So Jazz, what's been up with you?"
As Jazz and Sherise continued to talk, Melanie decided to take Jazz's luggage and bring it to the bedroom. "I'll let them talk while I start dinner," Melanie said quietly as she placed Jazz's luggage by her bedroom door.
Walking back out to living room, she saw both Sherise and Jazz sitting on the couch. "Mel, I hope you don't mind that I invited your boyfriend to sit down," Sherise teased. "He looked like he wanted to sit."
"Thank you for doing my job," Melanie replied, smiling. "Hey, what do you guys want me to cook for dinner?"
"I'm not sure if I want you to cook anything for dinner," Jazz teased.
Melanie shot him a look. "I can cook. Ask Sherise."
Jazz looked at Sherise, and she nodded. "It's true, she's been cooking me dinner lately," Sherise told him. Leaning over, she then said in a confided whisper, "Just say you would rather order something if you don't want the apartment to burn down."
Jazz laughed. "Why don't we just order pizza or something?"
"Fine," Melanie replied. "But you're missing out!"

Later on that night, Melanie, Jazz, and Sherise were sitting down at the kitchen table, playing a card game.
"And I said to her, 'Girl, you aren't going anywhere wearing that dress,'" Sherise told Melanie and Jazz, who both laughed. "I swear, that girl had no fashion sense whatsoever. Trying to wear a bright yellow dress to a funeral is beyond me."
"Some people just don't know what to wear to certain places or events," Melanie replied, throwing out a card. "I'm out."
"You bet," Sherise replied. The phone then rang. "I'll get it for you Mel. It's probably one of those damn telemarketers."
Jazz nodded in agreement. "Those are a pain in the ass to get."
Sherise got up and picked up the phone. "Graham residence. Yes, she is." Looking up at Melanie, Sherise said, "It's Rod."
"Ok," Melanie said, getting up. She figured that maybe he wanted her to come to workouts tomorrow, since shehadn't planned to go tomorrorw. "Hey Rod, it's Melanie."
"Hey, I hope you're not busy," Rod said, sounding upset, "because you need to get to the track."

Edited by: frostbite423 at: 12/31/03 5:08 pm

Horse Lovers United > Thoroughbred Series Fan Fiction > New York, New York(R)
	<< Prev Topic \| Next Topic >>