Run with the Lady of Wild Things...... Grecian Artemis was the goddess of the hunt -- she ran, with bow and silver arrows in hand, amongst the deer and boars in the wild woods. As a goddess of the earth, she was a huntstress -- vengeful, spiteful, but all the more revered as a goddess of chase and flight -- and who better to symbolize these dozen dames of the Grade 1 $600,000 Artemis Classic. “Symbols,” of course, are human abstractions, and so these dames’ trainers ran for Artemis’ honor and the glory of the Equinics Spirit. But, who can deny what horses desire -- they run for the wind in their faces, the thrill of the chase, and the burning all-out run. No, there cannot be any denying it -- these dames ran for their own special breed of honor -- an honor, we, as humans, shall never know.....

.......And one such dame came and conquered. Her name is Rack Park, a veteran four year old damsel by Sunny’s Halo. Cool stable of the Minnesota resident contingent knew they had their heartstruck filly as sharp as one of Artemis’ silver arrow tips for this one mile main track chase. As the golden color cascaded near and far around the Green Mountain Racetrack, so did Rack Park swing and swashbuckle in the post parade. She was coming off a nefarious fifth-place run in the Grade 1 Dancer Cap at New York -- a sprint event that saw her closing with tremendous fire from dead last. She won the Grade 3 Snownut Handicap before that tough loss -- making her 24th career call to the post, she knew something fantastic was in the air -- she’s a chaser, she’s a brute huntstress closing from way far back, the look was in her eye and the spark in her step...... and there was one Monster Mare Mile to test...........

Breaking smoothly out of the gate, jockey Fivel Gossett had to rum-tumble his filly into clear sailing on the far outside -- annieb2’s speedy W.Affair(IRE) broke from the 12-hole and had a jostling time juggling up to snatch and set the early pace. Gossett had to settle Rack Park down for some smooth sailing in eleventh place -- he felt good about the way his filly dug down deep -- she held her head high and leaned into the bit, pulling Gossett along. Like a buzzfly, Gossett knew he was along for the ride and the opening quarters went by lickety-split. W.Affair(IRE) had a steely lead upon correction’s Country Spring and tisjuliet’s stalker Nine Rae. Down the backstretch, horses shuffled for position and Rack Park stayed clear to the outside -- by the far turn, she gained good ground upon the front three, closing to within eight lengths in fifth place. Things looked a little desperate for cool stable, but chilliness is all part of the game.

Set down for the drive, Rack Park put forth a dynamite run -- after putting away cream’s Babe’s Sheep and passing tiring pacesetters W.Affair and Country Spring, she set her sights upon Grade 2 D-Day Distaff winner Nine Rae. In the final furlong, Gossett urged his filly home, but it wasn’t needed much -- Rack Park felt the wind in her face and the thrill of the burning all-out run chase -- there was no denying her as she stormed under the wire two lengths much the best over Nine Rae. W.Affair gallantly held on for third over a brave Country Spring and magical’s beautiful Niner Winner. In 1:33 4/5, the crowd was simply stupefied -- Rack Park scored a 121 speed figure -- a phenomenal number for a phenomess filly.

It was Rack Park’s eighth career score and by far her most important -- she has now earned well over $800,000 and we’ll definitely see her down the road. All in all, it was the Sim’ day of competitive spirit -- overcoming all odds, the Equinics shall stand as an unprecedented success. There have been many resident stable championship days, but those were for their own particular sites -- the Equinics united the resident stables -- it was hard work rewarded tenfold. Congratulations to cool stable and their Rack Park and to all Equinics participants and organizers -- it was the greatest day for the Sim community.