The Magic of the Equinics
It’s Wednesday evening in the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont. As usual I’m making the rounds of my stables at the track, making sure everything is ok. As I go by Hillhouse stable, I see Nehi Orange poking her pretty little head out of her stall, looking for some company. I stop to scratch her neck and find some mints in my pocket which the filly is very happy to crunch on. “Orange” is entered in the Equinics on Saturday in the 3yo Filly Mile. She will try her best as she always does but whether she wins a medal or not I will still be just as proud of her. It is a great honor just to be picked to represent Vermont.
I think that’s one reason the Equinics is the best special event in the sim. Don’t get me wrong — the Breeders Bowl is a great day of racing every year but a very small pct of players are part of it — what with only the top 14 in each division entered, and many of them from the same residencies. In the Equinics each res gets one horse per race — so even if you don’t have a horse in you can watch and root for your home group’s runner.
At the end of the day there will be a medal count and someone will post on the message board that their res is the best and the rest of us are a bunch of losers, etc. but like the Olympics, it really doesn’t mean anything. The real story of the Equinics is that many simsters from all over the world got together to put on a special day of racing and it worked and was fun. It makes me very proud to be a part of this amazing sim.
As I was unwrapping a final mint for Nehi Orange, I noticed that instead of trying to get it out of my hand she had her head up, looking skyward. There was rustling all up and down the shedrow. I was amazed to see that every horse in the barn had come to their stall doors and was looking in the same direction. The same thing was happening at every barn that I could see on the backstretch. There was no real noise, just each horse standing calmly, ears pricked, eyes on the sky. I looked up to see the figure of a huge, white horse glide by-and than I smiled. It was our old friend Pegasus, here again to watch over the Equinics, as he has done every year since its inception. The beautiful God of Horses, slowly circled the grounds several times as if to announce his prescence. I noticed many other people standing outside their barns, pointing at the sky. (Of course I was very glad of this so that when I told my story, Mano would not think that instead of going home I had spent a few hours at the Sirloin Saloon). Then as quickly as he had appeared, Pegasus was gone and “Orange” was grabbing the mint from hand.
So now the Equinics are officially on. Everyone is invited to the annual Equinics Breakfast on the main MB Saturday morning-whether or not you have a horse running. Just come and sign in. I am trying to break the record of 40 trainers that attended in 2004. The menu will be posted at that time.
On Saturday we will once again enjoy the wonderful gift that Ldyssecret has given to the sim known as The Equinics. The best part is that every two years we get to open the package again to see what surprises are hiding inside. THANK YOU to LS and all the many other folks that made this 2008 edition so much fun. Best of luck to all the resi’s, trainers and horses. “Let the Games Begin”
Rich – Lilbitfarm