Erin wins it all.



Erin was getting warmed up for the final at the PRA Championship West. It had been a rough series. She won every race she entered; Stacy won most of her races. Veronika had also won most of hers, too. The three of them were here all trying to win the championship. Willi was her jockey, and Jacqui ran Stacy.

The new jockey China was Veronika’s jockey. Wendy hired China to jockey for her when she realized there could be three ponygirls in the championship. She was four feet-eleven inches tall, the shortest that PRA would let in. Anything shorter than that was considered handicapped, and an unfair advantage. She weighed ninety pounds, also the minimum. China was her nickname, her given name was Ying Ying Oha. She was not dark like Kieko and Ione, she was very light and had dark brunette hair. Wendy thought China was a good nickname for her, she was tiny and cute, just like a china doll’.

China was a good jockey and had been in the PRA for three years. She was also willing to ride as a training jockey. She wore the silks Wendy had for Willi, they were a light and dark blue top with white jodhpurs, and black knee boots. Denise’s colors were a bright yellow and dark blue, with red piping, top with white jodhpurs and black knee boots.

Keiko and Elise hadn’t run enough races to qualify for the finals. The three were in adjacent stalls, to make it easier for the grooms, handlers and security personnel to care for them. Wendy and Denise decided to take their dogs, too. They just showed up with the dogs, and refused to remove them. Each girl felt very secure with her Shepard sleeping right next to her cot each night.



The preliminaries were much simpler for the championship series, the girls were divided into three groups by drawing and then those groups were raced in elimination races, the winner and second of the eliminations made up the six finalists. Erin and Veronika were in one group and Stacy in another.

The fastest in the third group was a tall black ponygirl from the northern California area. None of them had ever raced her before. She was the only black ponygirl in ponygirl racing, and she had a bad attitude toward the other ponygirls. She had knocked one girl down during the first race, by swinging her sulky into her as they ran along together.

Willi knew that if the jockey let the ponygirl help during the race, she could beat them. They progressed through the eliminations smoothly. When they got to the feature race, Erin and Stacy were first and second from their group; Veronika was first from her group. When they drew the numbers for the gate assignments, Erin was in gate one and Veronika had gate two, and Stacy was in gate four. The black ponygirl, Letitia, was in gate five. Her owner was not very happy about that. He insisted that the three preliminary winners should draw for the three inner gates and the others could draw for the other gates.

I could just pull out, and leave you all standing here, he shouted.

Then we could move the sixth gate to five. If your girl was any good you could win from any gate. The track owner was not very upset by the tirade.

If anything goes wrong out on the track, you’ll never race in PRA again, the PRA Rep. told him.



Erin went into her gate slowly, Willi made sure she would not get hung up coming out. The jockey for Letitia tried to harass her, but Willi just smiled. She knew she had the fastest ponygirl in the race, and she was in the first gate. Veronika was getting into her gate, and Stacy was getting ready too. Letitia was not trying to get into her gate yet. If she delayed the start more than the PRA Rep. thought was necessary, she would be disqualified. She stepped into her gate at the last second. The bell rang and in a few seconds the gates opened.

Willi brought Erin out and was onto the rail as soon as possible. She hugged the rail and stayed tight. China couldn’t keep up and brought Veronika in behind her. They stayed like that for almost the whole race. Letitia was finally closing on Stacy, but couldn’t pass before the race ended.

After the parade lap, the top three were required to give urine specimens after the race. They lined up so the technician could get the urine cups filled.

Letitia’s owner was very loud about his disappointment and that he had the whole off season to get even with Letitia for losing the championship for him. She was practically in tears as he ranted.

Why don’t you sell her if you don’t like her, get one that will run, asked Denise.

I’d sell that nag for a thousand, if I could find someone dumb enough to give it, he answered.

Done, was all Denise said. She looked around at the PRA Rep. He nodded.

The owner was still mad at Letitia; he pulled back like he was going to hit her…

DON’T YOU EVEN DARE HIT MY PONYGIRL! Denise yelled at him.

What do you mean?”

You said you’d sell for a thousand. I took you up on it, she said back to him. Denise called to the PRA Rep.

Yeah, I heard it, and I’ve got the paperwork all drawn up. He went over to Letitia and ran his reader over the barcode tattooed on the back of her neck.

What’s your number Mrs. Winters, he asked?

One-oh-eight, she answered.

I’m not releasing her until I see the thousand, he growled.

Hold out your hand, PLEASE.”

He held out his hand and Denise counted out ten 100’s to make one thousand dollars into it.

Please send all of her things sent to me at this address, she said, politely, as she gave him her card.

Of course, he said as he nodded.

Denise took the bridle and walked Letitia and the sulky to the gate for the stable. When they got to the gate Taylor Wallace the newest groom was there and she sent her to Letitia’s stall the get her things and to take her newest ponygirl to the bath stall.



When Erin came out of the bath stall, Willi was right there to meet her. She jumped up and hugged Erin around the neck. Erin gathered Willi up in her arms and held her like a baby.

We did it, liebling! Willi whooped. We won it all, you are Landesmeisterin, the champion of the land. We have the Meisterschraft, the championship.

We won, Erin yelped? Really? Oh, thank you, thank you. I love you so Erin was overjoyed, she was so excited she couldn’t talk anymore.

She carried Willi back to her stall, Ajax was there and he got all excited when he saw that Erin was. He began jumping around, too. Erin had to stop and make him calm down a bit. Denise was there waiting for her. She was at six months, her belly was getting bigger, but not gigantic yet. She was so excited that she was talking as fast as she could. Irina was there to get Erin ready to go home. They had driven to the track in a four-vehicle convoy, of vans and SUV’s. The trip home would be wonderful, but long. Denise had made arrangements to put Letitia in the vehicle with Wendy, Erin, and herself.