So I normally am not the type to post about a horse or a race unless I am promoting a standing stallion, but I just had to write a little something about this horse and this race because it has been 2 days and I am still in shock over what happened this past Friday night. Hopefully this isn't too long winded and you are able to stick around until the end because it does have a cool ending.
I have always thought how cool it would be to win a major race in the sim and wondered how it would feel. It is really is amazing how much emotion is tied to this game.
About 15 minutes prior to the race call for the Classic while Nena was in the middle of previewing the race she seemed get choked up a little live on the air. I don't know exactly what happened, but you hear her repeat question she was asked "am I ok?". I am guessing the question was the Steward behind the scenes asking Nena is she was ok. Literally the race prior to the Classic preview was the SC Turf which included Nena's undefeated superstar turf router Coleman Hell who suffered his first loss in 11 starts. Coleman Hell is a very special horse to Nena and it is totally understandable for her to be upset over the previous race results, but she is definitely a professional and a trooper and kept on through the remainder of the previous.
Fast Forward to the SC race call. The entire call was a blur to me. I honestly just sat there staring at the screen and listening. I was not really paying attention to the words in the chat room. Just the Stewards voice as she described the action taking place in the race. After the SC race call ended and You Are Not Alone was declared the winner, I felt something that I have never felt before in this game.
My emotions really got the best of me. I remember Emily asking in the broadcast if I was still alive. The reason I was silent was because I was too busy wiping tears from my eyes to type. I literally had shed tears over a fictitious horse/game and couldn't bring myself back to the computer to even say thank you.
I eventually came back, but many of you had already left. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that might have congratulated me in chat. That moment was the best moment I have ever experienced in the sim and i honestly don't know if anything will ever top it.
On to the cool part.
I was contemplating skipping out on the SC since I was scared of my horses chance to win or even hit the board with all those monsters entered in the race. I was also more focused on prepping my horse for the Y45 Desert World Cup. He was only 3 and could still come back to run in the SC Y45 when the likes of Tahoe, Halloween Town and possibly even Jack Skellington have retired. He was also just coming off a very tough win in the W14 Awesome Derby where he ran his second consecutive 90 SF. I figured it would be smart to rest him up for Y45 or sponsor a stakes race w16 Friday and hope for a soft field.
9 days prior to the SC I decided I enter him in the big race. I figured that I didn't pay 10 million dollars on a Steward bred to duck the biggest races and would really only get one more shot at the SC if I didn't send him this season unless I decided to continue racing him at 5.
6 days prior to the race I vetted him and results were not so pleasing as the vet mentioned that "YANA was a little tired and could run in a few days, but would not be at his peak." I walked him and hoped that over the next few days his condition would improve.
5 days prior to the race I vetted him again and he was still tired.
4 days prior to the race, the comments improved slightly, but he was still not 100%. The vet said to "check back again the next day." At this point I am thinking I might need to pull him from the race since he still has to ship to the track which would cause him some fatigue, but I decided to hold off and see how he vets after the ship. I walked him again in hopes that it would help him recover faster.
3 days prior to the race he shipped and the same day I decided to check with the vet. He came back with the same comment from 6 days prior. "He can run in a few days, but would not be at his peak"
2 days prior to the race and once again the comments improved with the vet telling me that "Yana should be fine tomorrow and check back with him then." I decided to give him one final walk around the shedrow.
Thursday night prior to the SC was the do or die moment for me. I checked again with the vet and this time he told me that my horse was "ready to race".
You all know by now how this race turned out, but the one thing I did not find out until tonight was that You Are Not Alone ran the SC Classic in the fastest recorded time ever in sim history. He ran the 10 furlongs in blazing 1:58.68 which was .02 seconds faster then it had ever been done before. The previous record was 1:58.70 and shared by 3 other. Y18 Classic winner Pillar of Strength, Y19 Classic winner End of the Line and Y30 Classic winner Maelstrom.
Anyway I just wanted to say thank you again to all of the congratulatory words I have received many of you.
I have put in a lot of hard work to get where I am at in the sim and it was really amazing to have it pay off for me in the way it did this past Friday night.
I wish all of your good luck with your new foals and I hope you all have an awesome break.
See you all next season.
