Blood On the Clay

In 2025, 17-year-old Eli Carver, 17-year-old Lucas Hartsfield, and 16-year-old Mara Vaughn chase the $10,000 purse of Clayhollow's Run of the Roses derby to redeem personal and familial legacies. Eli seeks to save the Carver farm from foreclosure, battling his father Tom's doping scandal and grandfather Amos's betting fix. Lucas aims to escape his father William's control, haunted by his mother Aisha's ideals and a ledger tying William to Tom's sins. Mara, desperate to fund her brother Caleb's leukemia treatment, risks moral ruin through doping schemes. In a town scarred by racism, economic decay, and the ghostly Hollow Mare, the trio navigates the jockey club's prejudice, Ms. Tate's investigation into the Shadow Syndicate, and their own demons, their fates converging in a race that tests honor against survival.