Chapter 15
AN: Time jump
Sorry it has taken so long to update My vacation pictures have been taking up all my time then i had a family obligation to attend to. Hope y'all enjoy this chapter
The time is now 3 years down the road and Benjamin is entering his last semester of classes. He will graduate in May and the year is 1966. Nothing major happened with them. I am going to start with a wrinkle in the story just to give the readers some excitement.
Benjamin and Suzanne were in the barn at the farm. Eric had just finished putting Benji in his stall. He was his trainer and doing an excellent job at it. Benji had won 6 stakes races and they were going to enter him in The Kentucky Derby this year.
Jared the jockey was doing an excellent job of running him and thought of him as partly his. He fell in love with him the first time he rode him and begged Eric to let him be his jockey.
They would be moving him to Kentucky next month and he would stay there until the race. Benjamin and Suzanne wanted to spend time with him before he left in the morning. They fed him some sugar cubes and apple slices. Benjamin was not looking forward to seeing him go and him being gone so long. They had spent several weekends on the farm with him and he was really invested in the horse.
Joe joined them in the barn to tell them it was time to let him rest.
May was fast approaching and everyone was excited to make the trip to Churchill Downs for the race. Benjamin's parents would be flying down to join them.
The Thursday before the race they took the train up to Kentucky. Benjamin was so excited and worried at the same time. He really wanted Benji to do good and secretly wanted him to win so it would impress his Dad.
The trip was a long one and everyone was glad when they arrived. Eric picked them up at the train station and drove them to their hotels.
Benjamin and Suzanne wanted to go to the stables and see Benji before they retired for the night so they rode with Eric to Churchill.
Jared was in Benji's stall brushing him down when they arrived. Benji sensed their arrival and stepped forward to nudge Benjamin. He chuckled and rubbed his neck. Jared always stayed with Benji the night before a race, even though no one expected him to do it. He said they both got a good night's sleep that way.
Saturday morning came and it was a beautiful day for a race. Everyone was on edge, but none more than Benjamin. Suzanne found him sitting in the restaurant downstairs of the hotel. He looked like he had not slept at all. She ran her hand across his shoulders and sat down beside him. He jumped at her touch, but smiled when he realized it was her.
"Benjamin, did you sleep at all? You look really haggard," she told him.
"Maybe a couple of hours, I am just too keyed up and nervous for Benji to sleep," he said.
She laughed at him and wrapped her arms around him.
The race was only an hour away and everyone was in the owner's box waiting on it to start. Benjamin and Suzanne joined them. They went to give Benji one last pep talk and wish him luck. He also wanted to tack his lucky pin on his blanket. He had done it for every race and didn't want to stop now.
The race was called and the horses were loaded into the starting gate. Benji was a long shot to win, but everyone made a wager on him anyway.
The bell rang and the horses were off…..
Two hours later and the smile on Benjamin's face was a permanent fixture. Benji had won the Kentucky Derby, He was so happy as was everyone else. Suzanne had given Benji a big kiss to his nose in the Winner's Circle. Benji had turned his head and laid it on her shoulder and everyone awed at the gesture.
Benjamin had a handful of rose petals in his jacket pocket and would keep them forever to remember the day.
Eric and Joe were beaming from ear to ear with the win. They had never entered a horse in the race, much less won it.
Ellen and Emma in their best dresses and fancy hats were flitting around everyone so joyously.
Benjamin was standing outside Benji's stall stroking his head when Suzanne found him.
She smiled at him and told him, "You have got to quit showering him with some much affection and let him rest or you are going to spoil him."
"He deserves to be spoiled, never has a horse with such long shot odds won the race. I am so proud of him. Eric did a fantastic job of training him and Jared ran a hell of a race."
She smiled at him, but pulled him away from the barn to go back to the hotel. They were leaving in the morning and it was a long train ride back.
Due to a sore foot Benji was not able to run in the Belmont and Preakness so no triple crown challenge for him. He would be retired to the farm forever and his stud fees would bring a hefty price.
Benjamin and Suzanne buckled down for finals and Benjamin's graduation. He would finally be finishing with school and then on to the next phase of his career.
There would be a wrinkle in his plans and some big changes coming he just didn't know about yet.