They were instead very calm, even seeming to forget that there was another horse in the stall. Okay, I can do this, Cassie reassured herself. There's only a few things that I have to do. I have to get out of this barn so I can demorph, then I have to find the others without being caught by any of the workers. Okay, that's three things I need to do. I might as well get started.

Since she knew that there was no way for her to be subtle, what with a big horse's head sticking out over the top of the stall, so Cassie decided that getting out of this place fast was more important than trying to be quiet about it. Walking up to the stall door, Cassie stuck her head out over the rim of the door and grasped the bolt of the lock in her teeth.

Sliding the bolt from the 'locked' to the 'unlocked' position, Cassie walked out into the hallway. Okay, now all I have to do is act normal, and I'll probably be able to get out of here. Inwardly, Cassie chuckled, a normal person wasn't too likely to fly into a barn, get caught by the workers, and then try to escape as a horse.

Since Cassie's horse body was quite large, she knew it was only a matter of time before someone spotted her. The workers weren't blind after all, and neither were they particularly stupid. Walking down the hallway, Cassie saw one of the workers turning to look at her.

"What the -? Oh my god, that's Minneapolis Max! How did he get out of his stall? Someone's going to catch hell for this, I'm sure. Hey! Someone get me his gear before Max here starts raising Cain!"

"Hey, Bruno!" another man's voice sounded from behind her. "There's another -"

Bruno quickly cut him off. "Stop jawing and get me his gear! You should know what stallions are like by now!" Turning to Cassie, Bruno smiled at her and patted the side of her head. "Hey boy, you knew you were in this race, so you decided to come out early. That's my boy! That's my champion, Minneapolis Max!"

Cassie had never been very interested in horse racing, but even she knew the name Minneapolis Max. Max was the horse that was supposed to win the Kentucky Derby.

"C'mon boy, let's go. We've got us a race to win."

The process of getting Cassie saddled and bridled for the race took almost the same amount of time that Cassie took getting her own horses ready when she wanted to ride them. The track workers did a bit more brushing then Cassie usually did, so it did take a little longer.

Once she was fully geared-up, a jockey wearing a red-and-green racing outfit climbed up onto her back. He needed some assistance, of course, since Cassie – and by extension Minneapolis Max – was a fairly tall horse. With the jockey now safely seated on her back, Cassie was led out to the racecourse itself.