It was the end of my first day at Lilyhope, and a groom took me to a nice, roomy stall. He began brushing me.
"What's this paste on your head, huh? Has someone been covering your markings?" He stopped brushing me and took out a mini-radio thing. "Hey Ali and Hunter, I think this new horse might be something special. His markings have been covered up. You gotta get down here."

A few minutes later, the two owners and a bunch of stablehands were standing around as my groom brushed me off. My face marking appeared, then my 2 socks. Then my whip scars became noticeable, and Ali gasped. "The poor thing! Who is he?"

"Ma'am, I've just unloaded the new horse," a man called. I heard the flanking of a horse walking down the aisle. They stopped in front if my stall.
"This, ma'am is Fine Line, Co-champion Top 3 year old Male of 2025 and Top Older Male of 2026."
"He's just recovering from an injury right? He's not retired yet?"
"Correct. He will go back to the track."
"I'd say we can send him back with this fellow here, whoever he may be. Do..."

Suddenly, Fine Line whinnied loudly and stuck his head up to me. I neighed and licked his face, just as he had done to me 2 and 1/2 years ago.

"Well, Fine Line knows him," Ali said, surprised.
"That's exactly what he did to console Repossess after he won the Belmont," her husband exclaimed. He came over to me and rubbed my forehead. Then he rubbed my shoulder where Tower had bit me. "They say he and To Win and Repeat but each other before they were separated. Who knows why, but this guy has a bite mark there, and that's an awfully uncommon place to get bit."

"Wait...is this Repossess?"
Hunter was on a little glowing square thing. "A horse named Repossess raced 5 days ago at Tampa Bay Downs."

________________

Repossess (KY)
B, C. foaled 3/27/22

Dam: Untapable
Sire: To Honor and Serve
Damsire: Tapit
Breeder: John Prescott
Owner: ?
Trainer: ?
Jockey: ?
Starts: 31
Wins: 31
Places: 0
Shows: 0
_______________

"Holy crap, it is him! And he's still undefeated!"
"2 and 1/2 years after his Belmont?!"
"Looks like it. He's 31 for 31."
"Not even Wise Dan, Bayern, or California Chrome were undefeated."
"Nope, looks like we got something here."
"What do we tell the public? They all think he's dead."
"I think we keep quiet until we send these two back TOGETHER to race. Where Fine Line goes, fans will follow, and they'll get a real surprise when they find a Triple Crown winner racing."
"What if he doesn't like racing?"
"We'll just have to see."

And so another new chapter of my life, a less depressing but still depressing one, began.