The new year had started, and it was time again for the yearlings to make their first official workout. Excitement was abound for the juveniles, a couple of whom were related to some very successful horses. This particular set of horses were no different.

Fabled Warrior was the full brother to Fabled Dreams and Fabled Finale, both Grade 1 HOTY winners, and Finale taking the previous year's Acorn Stakes**. Abby was the half-sister to the stable's best juvenile, Fly By Legacy. While the colt had only run on turf so far, the team was hopeful that his sister could do just as well on dirt, given her dam's record. And then there was the cream of the crop, Redeeming Grace. Her half-siblings were successful on the track with War of Redemption winning the previous year's Belmont Stakes**, and Redemption Arc succeeding at the marathon distances. Being by Merry Bay King, the team hoped that she would be just as successful at the classic distances.  And finally, there was Crimson Testimony, who was probably one of the team's favorite yearlings with how sweet she was.  She had a respectable pedigree to boot and with the successes of her half-siblings, it was hoped that she would be just the same.

Bradley was up on Fabled Warrior, the colt prancing around, eager to get on with the workout. Hailey sat on Redeeming Grace, who was looking at War like he was an idiot. And the newest jockey, Cory Bell was up on Abby. The other new jockey, Nicholas Peterson was up on Tally. After riding Firebrand, it was decided that he could have one of the easier horses to ride to give him a break. Seeing as how their stable had grown a lot in the past year, George had decided it was time to bring on new riders.  After all, the two current jockeys couldn't possibly ride all the horses they had. As it was, they barely got time off.

"This is going to be a short workout, just nine furlongs, starting from the gate. We want to simulate what it's going to be like in an actual race with horses around them. Obviously they've been gate-trained, but they've always ran with one other horse. Here we have four," George said from his position on After All. The paint gelding had been laid off for over a year with an injury, and it was decided that it was better to just retire him than to have him try and play catch up with the rest of the horses from his year. He didn't seem to mind the retirement, since it wasn't too different from what the past year had been like for him. At least now he still stepped onto the track every so often. He just wouldn't be running again.

"Should be a pretty good idea of what a normal field should be like, especially with how the fields are the first couple of weeks in January with everyone trying to get their horses' maidens broken. The sooner they get used to running in large fields, the better," George continued.

One by one, the yearlings loaded into the starting gate without a fuss, a far cry from the previous years when there was at least one horse that didn't like the starting gate. And though they might've gone easily inside, that didn't mean they would stay that way. It was a lot to ask for a young horse to stay still as they waited for every other horse to load, especially when they were the first one in, as Fabled Warrior was. Thankfully he was one of the horses who didn't mind waiting in the gate, as was Redeeming Grace, who was loaded in next. The one that gave them trouble was Abby. The filly fidgeted in the stall, clearly wanting the race to start. But by the time Tally was in, Abby was quiet enough that the gates could open.

The four horses darted onto the track, the frontrunners taking their usual positions. Redeeming Grace darted her way to the front, intent on being in the lead. Fabled Warrior took to the back of the pack, where he could bide his time. Crimson Testimony sat right off to his right. Abby was perfectly happy to be in the middle, where she was in the midst of the action. Nine furlongs was short - at least, short at the range the horses ran -  and there wasn't much room for error. But the yearlings were young, and they needed to learn to pace themselves. Not that they would be good at that at first, but that was something to work on later.

Grace flickered her ears back as Fabled Warrior started to make his move, passing the two other fillies to come along the front runner. Cory took Abby around the pack to dart to the front, surprising Fabled Warrior, who spooked a step, nearly running into Redeeming Grace. Luckily Bradley managed to keep the colt running straight as Grace pinned her ears back. The last thing they needed was for the testy filly to start snapping at the other horses. Thankfully Hailey managed to keep the filly's teeth away from the other horses. While the three horses in front were preoccupied with beating each other, they didn't seen to notice Crimson Testimony moving around them to get a hold of the lead, quiet as a ghost.

Cory had to work to keep Tally's mind on the track in front of her since the filly tended to get distracted when she was in the lead. The filly's ears kept flickering back uncertainly. Redeeming Grace was the first to realize who was taking the lead, trying desperately to catch up. She managed to get her head up to Tally's flank before the other filly managed to cross the finish line first. Behind them, Abby managed to nab third place from Warrior, though it was by a nose.

The riders had trouble pulling their mounts up since all four horses still wanted to beat each other. Grace in particular, refused to settle down until she'd managed to get ahead of everyone. But eventually they managed to get their mounts back to where George and Scotia stood.

"I think we've got the best foal crop we've had to date," George said. "Maybe we don't have as many crops to compare them to, as some of the more established stables, but I like what we have now."