Discover Top Posts Tagged with #top gallant

Can anyone help...

Forty years ago or so I came across a short story that I photocopied, stapled together and cherished for many years. I loved it so much I read it to my children a page or two a night. They loved it so much they would demand I start anew when I reached the end. I've lost it.

The story, unsurprisingly, involves horse racing. I always thought it was written by Dick Francis, the famed jockey-turned award-winning author, but a search of his work fails to turn it up. When she heard it my wife broke the news to me that it was a children's story, since the horses could talk to each other. They didn't talk to the humans, however, so I'm sticking to my belief.

The protagonist was a thoroughbred named Top Gallant, who we meet as a yearling when he is the precocious speedster of the paddock, playfully out-running all his compatriots in bursts of coltish bravado. One day however, he stepped in a gopher hole and broke his foreleg. The farm's veterinarian was able to set the leg, saving his life, but Top Gallant's racing career was over before it started.

The next year he would stand as close to the farm's gate as he could to watch his friends head off in vans to places called 'sales'. Most of them never returned. Some who did later left in other vans to go to places called racetracks, of which they would tell fabulous tales of racing against horses from far-away places in front of huge crowds. One of them, Funny Face, won several races and became quite famous. He would swan around the paddock when he returned and Top Gallant would lower his head and feel sad.

As the months went by Top Gallant tried hard to get better, His leg had healed a little crooked, making his canter look a little lopsided. He tried a few times to gallop but the pain made him pull up within strides. He was vaguely aware of a small, older man watching him from the fence near the stable, but paid him no mind. Something inside him made him want to run farther and faster, and every day he did just that.

A few weeks later Top Gallant saw the old man again, this time accompanied by the important-looking man he knew was the owner of the farm. They were talking in low tones, looking at him, the owner shaking his head at first, later acceding with a shrug and walking away. The next morning Cecil, as he learned the old man was called, entered the paddock with a racing saddle and tack. Top Gallant stood motionless as Cecil put this strange equipment on his back. The cold steel of the bit made him throw his head back but Cecil calmed him with hand and tone. In an instant Cecil swung himself up onto Top Gallant's back and they stood stock still as they each sussed out the other. With a cluck and a subtle shift in weight they set off in a slow jog.

This went on for weeks. As a pair they cantered around the paddock, then one day Cecil led him to the training track. Top Gallant recalled the stories of Funny Face, racing against other horses in fierce competition, and he wanted to sprint down the track as fast as he could, but Cecil kept a snug hold on him, only letting him breeze for short distances before pulling him up. One day as he was breezing he saw the owner standing at the rail with a stopwatch. Cecil steered him over to the rail where the men had a low conversation.

Things began to change in his life. He was moved to a stall in the main stable where he was washed and brushed. A man came and put lighter shoes on his feet The man who had travelled with Funny Face started coming around with sugar cubes and apples. Then one morning Cecil and the groom walked to his stall, deep in conversation, Cecil was holding a faded set of racing silks. "These were the silks I wore when I rode Commodore to the Triple Crown" Cecil explained to the groom. Top Gallant knew Commodore was his father! What were they up to?

The next morning the groom loaded him into a small horse trailer which badly needed a fresh coat of paint. He and Cecil climbed into the cab of the truck and Top Gallant was riding off the farm for the first time in his life. It was late in the summer, fall was fast approaching. They pulled through the gate of what was a small racetrack deep in the countryside. Fewer than one hundred people were in the stands.

After a few whirlwind hours of strange places, sounds, and horses, Top Gallant was led to a small walking ring where he was reunited with Cecil, now wearing the faded silks he had so proudly worn a decade before. As they walked onto the racetrack Top Gallant's heart began pounding, his nostrils flared to take in huge gulps of air. He didn't know how to explain it, but he knew he was where he belonged. He tried not to feel the bolts of pain that shot up his leg with each stride as he warmed up.

He was here to race.

[OK, I'm not going to ruin the ending. Remember, I didn't write the original story, but damned if I don't have a few tears in my eyes as I write this. Can anybody please point me to the author and title of this story?]

#top gallant #funny face #dick francis #thoroughbred racing