Kentucky
Derby 135 Sunday Wrap-Up: Mine That Bird Well After Upset
by Churchill Downs Notes Team | May 03, 2009
The morning after the stunning victory in the $2,177,200 Kentucky
Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (Grade I) by Mine That Bird was a busy
one for his owners and trainer – and for the 3-year-old gelding that
won the roses with his last-to-first rally along the rail on Churchill
Downs’ one-mile dirt oval.
Visitors to trainer Chip Woolley and owners Mark Allen of Double Eagle
Ranch and Dr. Leonard Blach of Bueno Suerte Equine included three-time
Kentucky Derby winner Bob Baffert, trainer of Derby 135 runner-up
Pioneerof the Nile; winning jockey Calvin Borel; and Tom McCarthy, the
owner-trainer of General Quarters the winner of the Toyota Blue Grass
Stakes (GI) and 10th to Mine That Bird in Saturday’s race.
There was also a live appearance by Woolley, Borel, Allen and Blach on
NBC’s “Sunday Today” that included an appearance by the Kentucky Derby
winner, as the horse stood behind the winning connections grazed in
front of Barn 42 while wearing the winner’s saddle towel that bore the
official Kentucky Derby 135 logo and the images of roses in the area
that covered Mine That Bird’s withers.
Woolley, whose stable is based at New Mexico’s Sunland Park, said Mine
That Bird was doing well after the race, and the gelding validated
that assessment as he nibbled at the Churchill Downs grass and never
turned a hair as a sizable crowd of reporters, videographers and
well-wishers looked on.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Woolley. “It’s actually a little
bit hard to get your arms around right at the moment. It’s hard to
believe that you actually came in here and won this thing.”
The 45-year-old Woolley admitted to getting little more than an hour
of sleep after the biggest win of his training career. Allen, when
asked about how the night of celebration had gone, said “It’s still
going,” and drew a hearty laugh from media members present on the
morning after America’s greatest race.
Woolley said it will be a while before a decision is made on a
possible bid for the $1 million Preakness (GI), the second jewel of
the Triple Crown that will be run at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course
on May 16.
“We’ll decide that today or tomorrow,” Woolley said. “Me and the
owners will meet and have a little discussion. It really wasn’t
something that was on our radar, so we’ll decide on it. We were
looking to run the horse farther anyway, so we’ll just have to see
what it brings today.
“You’ve got to do what’s best for the horse, and the horse comes
first. So we’ll just see what happens.”
Blach and Allen agreed that the condition of Mine That Bird would be
the basis for the ultimate decision on a Preakness bid, but Allen was
most enthusiastic about the notion.
“We’re going to let the horse tell us that,” he said. “This horse is
doing good and comes off this race good, you bet we’ll run, but he’s
going to have to tell us.”
All three credited the patient, ground-saving ride by jockey Calvin
Borel as being the key to the upset victory by the 50-1 shot, the
second-largest upset in the 135-year history of the “Run for the
Roses.” Mine That Bird was last in the field of 19 on the first run
through the stretch after being jostled shortly after leaving the
starting gate.
“The one-run was definitely the plan and we had talked about being
eight-to-10 (lengths) from the lead,” Woolley said. “I had felt all
along that’s where the horse needed to be, but we had just never
gotten that trip. When he got annihilated leaving there – this is a
little horse, he’s not very big – and when he got banged around
leaving there, we were really concerned right away about that. I had
told the press before that he couldn’t take a bunch of beating, so
when he got shuffled that far back, I actually wasn’t too high on my
chances when he came by me at the grandstand way last. But the horse
responded and Calvin done a super job of riding the horse. So we’re
just lucky to have been there.”
“It’s truly an honor to be a part of it, but I’m telling you guys that
this horse never got nearly enough credit for his ability. You earned
your way here. It’s not like we just paid him in here and brought
him. The horse earned his way here and he deserved a chance to run in
the Derby. He was doing super, the horse was training good and we
just felt like he had earned his spot here and we had to come and take
‘em on. He anted up, I’m telling you. He’ll leave it on the track
every time.”
Baffert, who spent more than a little time racing in New Mexico and at
Sunland Park, dropped by the barn and said “Where’s that cowboy who
beat me?”
After offering best wishes to Woolley, Allen and Blach, Borel arrived
and receive a hearty handshake from Baffert, who told Borel that this
weekend, which began with Borel’s 20 ¼-length victory in the Kentucky
Oaks aboard Rachel Alexandra and reached its peak with his unlikely
romp in the Kentucky Derby, had earned the Louisiana native a spot in
racing’s Hall of Fame.
“He’s the only one who could have pulled that off,” Baffert said of
Borel’s ride. “What he did was just incredible. He won that race.
He sat back there and I watched the replay – and he’s last at the
three-eighths pole – you just don’t do that. He weaved his way
through there and everybody knows that the rail’s the place to be, but
everybody gets off of it. I think he deserves a lot of credit, but
that guy that trained him (Woolley), he did a great job with this
horse. This horse was ready and he trained him, and even though he
vanned him here an it was like “Casey’s Shadow,” they got here and
they won the biggest race.”