Rivers Crossing

November 17, 2029, Kyoto Racecourse.

The warmth of sunlight fell on the back of her neck, and she gently rolled her shoulders.

The sun seemed to hang directly overhead.

Even in winter, when it remained low at noon, the warm sunlight stretched from the stands all the way down to the turf at her feet.

Combined with the sandwich she had eaten during the paddock parade, it really was the kind of weather that made one sleepy.

No wonder Poetic Banquet looked so listless despite having just finished a race.

"She actually won even like that..."

Holding up one end of the winner's halter and smiling toward the cameras, Trainer Ikee could not help voicing that sentiment.

The fourth race on the third day of the fourth Kyoto meet: a maiden turf race for two-year-olds.

Because her previous outing had taken little out of her, this race came just three weeks after her debut.

The venue was still Hanshin Racecourse, but the distance had been extended to 2,000 meters on turf—a distance that might have been a bit demanding for a filly at this stage.

The change in distance came not only from the owner, Trainer, and Jockey all agreeing that "she should be able to handle a little more distance," but perhaps also from the slightly more cautious expectation that "at 2,000 meters, even if she makes a mistake early on, there will still be time to recover."

The result—

Amid the unending cries of despair from the racing fans in the stands, Poetic Banquet predictably broke slowly.

It was not because she lacked training, nor because she was a difficult horse with obvious temperament issues. Her poor start seemed to have stemmed from the absurdly simple reason that she had simply failed to react in time.

This time,