Guest Blogger--Sandy James

I'm happy to welcome back Sandy James as a guest blogger today.

SPRINGTIME

It’s springtime again in Indiana. Of course, we had snow flurries this week, but... In the Hoosier state, you can never count on spring and warmth to co-exist. With the arrival of April comes the opening of Hoosier Park. Yes, my friends, we’re racing horses again!

I stood in the winner’s circle for the first time this season on my first trip up to Anderson. Between the eight hours I spend dazzling kids in my classrooms, the time I devote to churning out edits, and the hours of trying to add pages to my many “works in progress,” I don’t get to see my horses nearly as often as I’d like. So to have a visit to the winner’s circle on my first trip truly made the drive to Hoosier Park worthwhile. The cherry on top of the sundae was that the winning horse was Heart’s Prince – my homebred four-year-old.

I wrote about Prince the last time I blogged for Equestrian Ink. At that time, he’d finally won his first race, and I was in hopes we would have some success with him. His two-year-old season hadn’t really been much more than a few qualifiers and some less than stellar races. That first win was the beginning of his three-year-old season, which I’m happy to say was a success. He found his way into the winner’s circle three times. Most of his earning, however, came from Prince’s constantly finding himself a bridesmaid. He finished second eight times. For a horse who seemed to act like racing was the furthest thing from his equine brain, we were pleased to see him pacing so well.

Prince is a chestnut – a typical redhead. Hot temper and passionate nature. He used to be a pain both on and off the track. Luckily, he seems to have matured. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still an ass around the track. It’s one of the reasons we keep him with a trainer who stables on a farm.

The first time this season Prince was led to the track for a pari-mutuel race, he reared enough he almost unseated our driver, Jason Dillander. And in the paddock, he doesn’t exactly wait patiently for his race. But at the farm, when he’s away from the track, he’s affectionate and easier to manage. He’s also fallen in love with our trainer’s girlfriend, Renay. She’s the only one

who can keep him calm in the paddock. Prince obviously has a crush on her.

That fire inside Prince showed itself in the race I watched. The first quarter had been slow, and Prince had been parked in second, riding the pocket behind the leader. But as they approached the half, Jason took him around the leader and started to set his own pace. That move is always a big gamble that often leads to the horse being too tired to finish strong in the stretch. I think I groaned and threw a frown at my husband who sighed in return. We both feared the race would have a very unhappy ending.

As the field rounded the last turn, Prince’s lead started to dwindle as the pack, one horse especially, closed in on him. My heart sank as I figured Prince would fade. But he didn’t. In fact, when the inside horse drew eye-to-eye with him, Prince refused to let him pass. That kind of desire to win came from his parents. They were both fantastic and tenacious competitors. Prince not only held his ground, he opened up a lead again. He won by a good length.

Heavens, how I love my little chestnut. Is it any wonder I modeled Katie’s horse – Spun Gold – in Murphy’s Law after him? Speaking of Murphy’s Law, I’m pleased to say it has done well since the ebook release last month. It’s nice to know people love to read about horses. I’ve also had a couple of great reviews of the story from Night Owl Romance and Coffee Time Romance. Look for the book to appear in print in June. My May ebook release, All the Right Reasons, takes readers back to the track to reconnect with the Murphy’s Law characters and introduce some new people and new horses.

Let’s hope this season will be just as great for Heart’s Prince as the last.

Photo by Linscott Photography
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Sandy James

http://www.sandy-james.com/

Guest Blogger--Sandy James

First of all, I want to welcome Jody Jaffe as a regular member of EquestrianInk. Jody writes equestrian mysteries, and we are very happy to have her here.


Today, we are pleased to have a guest blogger, Sandy James. Sandy is a writer and races harness horses.

SANDY JAMES

http://www.sandy-james.com/

http://www.geocities.com/hockeyjam415@sbcglobal.net/

Sandy is a fourteen time finalist in RWA contests who recently signed with Maureen Walters of Curtis Brown, Ltd. She lives in a suburb of Indianapolis where she teaches high school social studies. The James Harness Racing stable races mostly at Hoosier Park and Indiana Downs, but they race horses in Canada as well. Her first book, Turning Thirty-Twelve, will be released by BookStrand in January. Her racing story, Murphy's Law, will be released by BookStrand in March.

Our homebred three-year old won his first race

not too long ago. I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder of one of my racehorses. Oh, sure, our stable has had horses that have raced faster. We’ve had horses who earned quite a bit of purse money. And there have been some I’ve really become attached to. But Heart’s Prince is unique. Let me tell you why.

My husband, mother, and I owned a racehorse named MyHeartStoodStill. She had the heart of a champion. You never saw Heart give in, and I think she would have raced on three legs if that was all God gave her. She raced well at our home track, Indiana Downs, and when that meet ended, we sent her to a trainer we were working with in Ontario. The trainer did a good job, but Heart seemed to be struggling. When the husband and I went up to Windsor to watch her race, we went back to the paddock after to see her. Things weren’t good. My poor mare was blowing so hard, her nostrils flared almost impossibly large. I wanted to throw my arms around her and make it all better. We sent her to the veterinary school in Guelph.

Poor Heart seemed to have developed a sort of exercise-induced asthma. She wasn’t going to be able to race any longer. I’d made the mistake of getting attached to her, and I couldn’t bear the thought of her ending up pulling some Amish buggy. I put my heads together with another trainer and decided to breed her. A friend near Ladoga, Indiana, had a stud he was standing for only a few mares. Problem was we didn’t have a farm to keep Heart at while she waited out the birth. Problem solved. The breeder said he’d be glad to keep her with his broodmares. Heart only needed to be covered twice before she conceived.

I “saw” Prince before he was born. The breeder brought the ultrasound to the track when one of his horses was racing. All I saw was a big black dot, but I have to admit, it was thrilling to know that a new horse was in my future.

Heart had an easy birth, and my mom and I went to visit the day after Prince was born. We hadn’t decided on a name. I wanted “Midlife Crisis” since owning horses was literally my husband’s midlife crisis. Second choice was “Freudian Slip” because I teach psychology. My mom took one look at that little chestnut colt and said he looked like Bambi. Since the joke in the Disney movie was that Bambi was going to be prince of the forest, mom got it in her head that we should call him Prince. I just rolled my eyes, but she wouldn’t give it up. So we finally settled on Heart’s Prince.

He trained to harness well and we had high hopes for him. He even had a start or two as a two-year old, but we weren’t very encouraged. Prince had a habit of getting rough gaited, and we were starting to wonder if we might just have another saddle horse on our hands. But the little guy has turned his three-year old year into a profitable one, starting with that first win. I had never been prouder walking into that winner’s circle. My colt had won. My colt!

When I write my romances about racing, I try to throw in all the love I have for the animals and the sport. My first story about racing will be released by BookStrand in March. I sure hope the passion I have for standardbreds comes through in Murphy’s Law.

When our horses are ready to retire, my sister adopts them and trains them as saddle horses. We still have MyHeartStoodStill, and she is enjoying her "retirement." Standardbreds make fantastic pleasure horses, and I strongly encourage adopting one when his or her racing career ends.