Cassie Ferguson is a teenager trying to cope with her life. Following her mother's death in a tragic accident, she is forced to live with her estranged father, Richard, at his horse farm in Kentucky. Failing to come to terms with her loss, she grows up nearly void of hope and refuses to trust anyone but herself. After years of failed attempts to bond with his daughter, Richard almost resigns to giving up until the day a miracle occurs. A foal is born from the very thoroughbred responsible for the death of Cassie's mother. Cassie discovers the secret to this unique creature that only she can see – a secret that changes her life forever and helps forge a new bond with her father. After raising her beloved companion, Cassie struggles against others trying to take away her young filly for her gift of speed to satisfy their own ambitions. In order to stay together, Cassie leaves home with her filly to embark on an adventure through the world of championship racing in an attempt to win the Triple Crown series. Along the way, she uncovers dark secrets from her past that threaten to destroy her unfolding future.

The best known legends surrounding the unicorn are in Western culture. The common view of the unicorn as a horse with a horn is popular, and has been depicted in our heritage for thousands of years. The unicorn is mentioned in the Bible in several verses. The Palm Sunday tract in the Roman Catholic missal reads, 'Deliver me from the lion's mouth, and my lowliness from the horns of unicorns'. Saint Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan in the fourth century, considered the unicorn a symbol of Christ as he wrote, 'Who then has one horn, unless it be the only begotten son, the unique word of God, which has been next to God from the very beginning?' Saint Augustine considered the horn of the unicorn to be a symbol of the unity of the faith of the Church. The Unicorn has always been depicted as a creature of beauty and purity. Entrapped only by a virgin's innocence. Its horn is said to possess magical qualities for healing and detecting poison. It became a desired object for royalty with concerns about untimely deaths. The unicorn is also used as symbol for Christ in Christian religions. They are known around the world.

The best known legend is that of the unicorn and the maiden. Where hunters could not catch the unicorn by force, a pure young woman could, for her innocence would so fascinate the unicorn that he would come and lay his head in her lap. Then the hunters could come and take the unicorn. From here come the hundred stories of girls who loved the unicorn and saved him from the hunters. Another religious belief was that the invincible nature if God was shown in the Unicorn. Some religions even believe that the Unicorn was present in the Garden of Eden watching the destruction of the innocence of Adam and Eve. Some see the Unicorn as a myth, while others believe that not only did this magnificent animal roam the Earth in times past, but it still does today.

A Test Of Patience – by Stephen Allred

I could easily give you the teams that have won the Super Bowl over the last ten years. I can recall the last decade of NBA championships, including Michael Jordan’s phenomenal run in the nineties. I can see the celebrations during the conclusion of the NCAA Basketball Tournament when a national champion emerges from the field of 65 teams. In virtually every major sport, fans can enjoy the crowning of a champion year after year. Yet there is one fast growing sport that fails to appoint a champion of its greatest series every year. It has been twenty-five years since the last athlete accomplished it. Did you know that the athlete does not even get paid if victorious – just the owner?

The Triple Crown series is truly a remarkable tradition in American Sports. For over one hundred and twenty years the famous series has been run the same way. An elite group of thoroughbreds gather at Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. The winner of that race begins the journey to compete in the next two races, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. All of this is done to try to claim the elusive Triple Crown.

Does it sound difficult?

Would you be interested to know that in all the years since Sir Barton won in 1919, it has only been accomplished eleven times? The last win was a horse named Affirmed in 1978. Did you also know that only three-year old thoroughbreds can race the series? That translates into having only one shot to accomplish this prize in the lifetime of each thoroughbred that makes the attempt.

You might not have known these facts because, until recently, this series has gone largely unnoticed in the sports world. However, with vastly increased marketing from its major sponsor Visa and premiere coverage on NBC, the national drama building up to the anticipated twelfth winner of the series is drawing in a larger audience than ever. In 2002, the televised series captured a combined 6.8 rating for NBC, up over 10% from the previous year. To put that in perspective, many of NBC’s NBA playoff games prior to the Finals don’t have ratings that high.

So now there are droves of novice fans tuning in for the first time and learning more about this series of races and this sport. Fans like me.

I became uniquely interested in the Triple Crown when I decided the drama of this event and the absence of a recent champion set the stage for a great story. I sat down to write my first novel around this subject when I realized I really had no idea exactly how a horse qualifies to even participate in the series. The answers that came out of my research turned out to be intriguing.

There is a regular racing season that begins in Florida on New Year’s Day every year. Over the following four months, over fifty races are run throughout the United States that are considered part of the trials for the Triple Crown. How a horse performs throughout the trials is evaluated and determines if a nomination to run the Kentucky Derby is granted.

Is that the only way to get in?

As it turns out, there is a rather bold shortcut should an owner elect to pursue it. If there are any spaces available to race in the Kentucky Derby after nominations are determined, an owner can elect to buy his way into the race by putting down a substantial entry fee. This method is rarely used since if a horse was not good enough to be granted a nomination, it is not likely to be considered a strong candidate to win. Leveraging an entry fee of nearly a quarter of a million dollars is not a good business decision for an owner unless you are very confident of finishing at least in the top three.

Yet the practice is not unheard of. Recently in 2002, renowned trainer Bob Baffert convinced the Saudi Prince Ahmed Salman to purchase War Emblem, a black colt that won only the Illinois Derby earlier that year. They bought their entry into the Derby and War Emblem went on to win the race as well as the Preakness two weeks later. Baffert’s surprise colt stumbled in the final race to just miss becoming the twelfth winner of the Triple Crown.

War Emblem is not alone in the collection of near misses. Despite its infrequent rate of success, there have certainly been plenty of chances to add more horses to the list of achievers. Forty-four thoroughbreds have won two out of three races in the series. Of those, 17 won the first two to be a breath away from winning it all, but like War Emblem, they failed at Belmont Park. On June 7, 2003, Funny Cide became the 18th thoroughbred to have won the first two jewels but fail at the Belmont to postpone history yet another year.

But whether their entries are bought or qualified over months of racing, when the participants arrive in May at Churchill Downs, they are simply a collection of the world’s greatest thoroughbreds attempting to accomplish what so few before them have. To a fan, this competition can touch our greatest appreciation for excellence in a sport. These athletes are unique in that they will never want money to play, never strike before a season is out, and always give their very best.

This is not meant to downplay the role of the jockey or the trainers. Their experience and guidance can certainly provide the tools to win a race. It is their job to take the raw talent and speed of a prospect and turn it into a champion. However, the vast percentage of the success lies in the animal itself. It would seem that only once in a great while does a candidate emerge that is special enough to capture all three jewels of the Triple Crown.