Arthur Rackham, “The Hare and the Tortoise”, illustration line block printed from drawing, from Aesop’s Fables.

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The race was organized to decide the swiftest. The hare thought it was funny as it did not consider a tortoise as competition. Anyways, the prize money was good.

At the race, the hare took off to a flying start and had a considerable lead in no time. Half way, confident of winning, the hare decided to take a nap. The tortoise trudged slowly. When the hare woke up, the tortoise was close to winning the race. The hare caught up, and finally they were snout-and-shell at the finish line. After a photo finish, it was decided that the tortoise had won the race.

The lion and its pride applauded. After all, this race was to entertain them.

The elephants and the horses were happy at their organizational marvel.

The foxes who ran the betting circuit pocketed a fortune from the against-the-odds ending.

Naturally, the hyenas made the most from betting, and to some extend the bears too. The bulls lost some money.

The vulture capitalists had invested in everything. They had represented both the tortoise & the hare. They had bought advertising & television rights. The race soon became an international syndication.

The eagles and kites analyzed the ending for many days. They couldn’t agree whether the tortoise got any undue advantage as it could push its neck out at the last moment or not. Nobody bothered about them anyway. Nevertheless, they argued and debated — they had to run a 24 hour news channel.

The tigers are hiding after their exposure to Collateralized Race Obligations.

The rats were unhappy. They were not even invited to the race. As reptiles and mammals shared some DNA, they decided to call the winner a “Rat”.

The cats licked their paws to clean up spilled “served” chilled beer. They were wondering what to do the next day — whether to count the waves, or surf the waves, or just lie in a shade on the beach and have chilled beer & fried fish “served”. Was there a race? What for?

The common donkeys paid for all of this.

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Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to animals living or otherwise is purely observational co-incidence — whatever it means.