Test of Champions

By A.C. Ellas

V-Tach has won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Now, only the Belmont Stakes stands between him and racing history. But the Test of Champions has defeated many a Triple Crown dream and not all horses finish the trail.

The disappearance of magical horses struck home once with the disappearance of Xanthos. When Achilles “Pat” O’Peleon, Vee’s mate, is stolen, the shifter is determined to track him down, but the odds are against them, and so is the clock, for the day of the Belmont Stakes looms ever closer.

Are the púcca jockey and his racehorse shifter up to the task of finding and freeing the magical horses? Will they make it back to the track in time for the Belmont or will they be forced to abandon their dream in the face of greater need? What price is the pair willing to pay for victory, both on and off the track?

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Jul 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781771119481

Book preview

Now there are twelve.

V-Tach has won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Now, only the Belmont Stakes stands between him and racing history. But the Test of Champions has defeated many a Triple Crown dream and not all horses finish the trail.

The disappearance of magical horses struck home once with the disappearance of Xanthos. When Achilles Pat O’Peleon, Vee’s mate, is stolen, the shifter is determined to track him down, but the odds are against them, and so is the clock, for the day of the Belmont Stakes looms ever closer.

Are the púcca jockey and his racehorse shifter up to the task of finding and freeing the magical horses? Will they make it back to the track in time for the Belmont or will they be forced to abandon their dream in the face of greater need? What price is the pair willing to pay for victory, both on and off the track?

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Test of Champions

Copyright © 2014 A.C. Ellas

ISBN: 978-1-77111-848-1

Cover art by Carmen Waters

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Devine Destinies

An imprint of eXtasy Books

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Smashwords Edition

Test of Champions

Son of the Wind Book Four

By

A.C. Ellas

Dedication

To every horse who has travelled on the Triple Crown trail, to those who stumbled upon the way and to the eleven who did not.

Most especially dedicated to California Chrome, who will face his own Test of the Champion soon.

Hold your strength till the barriers fly,

then close with the leaders eye to eye.

Thundering hooves and the mad jammed race,

blood in the nostrils, sweat in the face.

And children, remember wherever you are,

you carry the blood of Man o' War.

~Anonymous

Chapter One

Eighteen days until the Belmont

Belmont. The Big Sandy. Two days after winning the Preakness by a neck, V-Tach strode over the Belmont track like he owned it. In a way, he did. This was his home track, the track he’d worked on since coming up from the training farm as a promising two-year-old. Belmont, with its huge oval and wide, sweeping turns, was a welcome sight to both horse and rider.

Yesterday morning, without even a last gallop over the Pimlico track, Vee had been loaded into a trailer for the four-hour drive to New York. They’d reached their barn at Belmont by afternoon and had enjoyed the grassy yard outside the barn.

Now, here they were on a Monday morning, galloping over their third track in as many weeks, and in three more weeks, V-Tach would face the grueling mile-and-a-half challenge of the Belmont Stakes.

The Test of Champions, it was called. It was the longest and last of the three jewels of the Triple Crown. If Vee won it, he’d be the first horse to do so since Affirmed in 1978. The Belmont could also be named the destroyer of dreams. So many great horses had won the Derby and the Preakness only to fall short in the final yards of the long, long Belmont stretch. But there were also great horses who, after having lost the Derby through misfortune, had gone on to win the Preakness and Belmont.

Vee’s challenge was simply to win the Belmont. He had the pedigree for the distance, he’d trained and raced and won over this track before and, most importantly of all, he was the only horse who had a chance to win the Triple Crown. As a result, Pat knew there would be a big, fat target on their backs come race day. And if he had his way, that’s all the rest would see—their backsides.

The plan was to canter the colt once around the mile-and-a-half oval before heading back to the barn. There was no need to work him hard and every reason to let him take it easy for a few days. Vee, however, didn’t agree. He’d tugged on the bit the last half mile, his usual request to be let loose.

Not today, me boyo, Pat told him.

I want to run, Vee replied, his mental voice happy and playful. He sidled to the outside, placing his hooves with dressage-like precision as he went diagonally across the track. Come on; let’s have some fun. Look, I bet you we can overtake that horse.

Pat glanced at the horse in question. He’s an allowance horse. You’re way outta his league, there’d be no contest. Why embarrass him?

Vee snorted but settled down and cantered the last furlong briskly. He almost caught that poor allowance horse even at a canter.

Turning back to the barns, Cedric came alongside. A little eager, is he?

Cedric, the assistant trainer and manager of Home Farm, had remained in New York at Brenden’s request. Brenden himself was occupied, at the moment, with tracking down the whereabouts of Xanthos, Vee’s sire.

He is; he wanted to race the other horses. Pat grinned down at Vee. And so he will. In three weeks.

Vee snorted in what sounded a lot like disgust.

When they reached the barn, Pat pulled the tack off, handed it off to Nate then took Vee’s lead and starting walking down the shedrow. Brenden’s string occupied the entire barn, but Brenden had agreed to allow BowTiesAreCool to stay with them since his trainer didn’t usually work the New York circuit. It was a gentleman’s tradition to host visiting horses for big races like the Belmont. BowTiesAreCool was still in Maryland, however, and wasn’t expected until later in the week.

Belmont was a grand old track, one of the oldest, and in Pat’s opinion, one of the nicest. The barns were arranged in a park-like setting, with open areas of grass and shady trees between them. There were even barbeque pits for the staff to enjoy cookouts, a track tradition that Pat greatly enjoyed.

As he walked with Vee, he muttered, We’ll be able to slip into Otherworld easily here.

Won’t we be missed? Vee paused to pose for a pair of cameramen.

I’ve got a plan, Pat told him. They ambled onward, until Vee was loose and relaxed and completely cooled down, not that the easy work had tired him any.

Everywhere they looked, there were cameras. And reporters. And, well, fans. Like every modern racehorse, V-Tach had his own Facebook page and twitter feed, updated regularly by either Brenden or Pat. Before long, Pat thought, he’ll be reading