It was July 31st, 2018, which happened to be Lily's tenth birthday.

James hadn't actually wrapped his present for Lily. Instead, he had put it in a hot pink bag with a hot pink bow and simple to Lily from James tag.

By random chance, Lily chose to open James's gift first.

After tearing off the bow and opening the bag, Lily gave a loud WOW! of excitement.

In her hands was a shiny silver box with a picture of the GOAT racehorse Secretariat on the cover with the words The Complete Horse Racing Card collection stamped on it across the top in gold foil lettering.

"It's just the same as my horse racing card collation, "Now we both have complete horse racing card collections."

"This is awesome, James, " said Lily jovially.

"Just to explain what to expect, " added James matter of factly, "Some of the cards will feature legendary racehorses, others will feature classic tracks, and others will feature great moments in horse racing history. "

"That's awesome," cooed Lily.

"You can look through them all later, " said Harry cheerfully, "But since you're so excited about this gift, I'll let you open one pack now."

So, Lily opened the box and saw that all the packs just had pictures of generic brown horses on them.

Ripping open the first pack, Lily looked through the cards she'd gotten and said, "This is totally awesome baby!"

"Which cards did you get?" James asked Lily.

"There appear to be three cards per pack, " observed Lily.

"Yes, " confirmed James, "That is done intentionally to represent the Triple Crown."

"Cool, " beamed Lily, "I've got a Churchill Downs card!"

"Home of the Kentucky Derby, " smiled James, "While the most classic moments often come at the Belmont Stakes due to Triple Crown clinches, individually, the Kentucky Derby is the most prestigious race."

"No doubt about that, " agreed Lily, "Plus it also has that excitement from being the first race of the Triple Crown challenge."

"Exactly, " said James matter of factly.

"My second was of Sunday Silence's photo finish win over Easy Goer at the 1989 Preakness, " grinned Lily.

"That might still be the greatest photo finish ever a Triple Crown race, " said James briskly.

"Either that or the 2016 Belmont, " said Lily crisply, "And my last card is of Secretariat!"

"The GOAT, " said James, "He was actually the first card I got when I opened my first pack."

"He was actually my first too, " said Lily jovially, " I told you what I got in reverse order, but he was actually the first one I pulled out!"

"That's so awesome, Lily, " beamed James, "I love how you got the same first card I did when I got my set!"

"Like brother like sister!" piped up Lily glowingly.

"That's some magic in the air here, " said James thoughtfully, "I think the fates wanted Secretariat to be both of our first cards."

"I'm just so freaking happy to have a complete set that's exactly like yours, " smiled Lily.

"I made sure it was the exact same set as mine when I bought it, " explained James, "There are a few different sets of horse racing cards out there, but I wanted us to both have the same set."

"I'm glad you thought that way, " beamed Lily, "Our shared love of horse racing is one of the things we've bonded over over the years so that feels fitting."

"Exactly, " said James, "And happy birthday, Lily. Reaching double digits in ages in a milestone."

"Totally agreed, " smirked Lily, "But I look forward to next year's milestone more."