Mine That Bird!

I missed the entire racing season up to the Kentucky Derby. Usually I will have seen at least some of the early races, but I saw none this year. I'm not sure it would have mattered much.

Key Dear and I were on the phone doing our usual Derby race picks. We put on our hats and made our selections. I had Dunkirk, Desert Party and General Quarters, with Musket Man as my fourth. She had Friesan Fire, General Quarters, Advice, and Summerbird as her fourth. PopPop decided to play this year, picking Hold Me Back and Flying Private. Mr. Bill had Chocolate Candy, Dunkirk and Papa Clem, Mr. K had Papa Clem, Mr. Hot Stuff and Flying Private, and Logito had General Quarters and Join In The Dance.

Unfortunately, while ESPN and NBC were interviewing celebrities and having fun, they weren't giving us any useful information about the horses. We got a couple stories about entries: 75-year-old Tom McCarthy and his one horse stable, consisting of $20K claimer General Quarters; and Friesan Fire's connections, trainer Larry Jones and jockey Gabriel Saez, who endured last year's tragedy with Eight Belles. But overall, I thought the pre-race coverage sucked bigtime.

How they missed pint-sized Mine That Bird's story is a complete mystery to me. He was a $9,500 bargain yearling at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October; Canadian 2-year-old Champion last year, winning 4 out of 5 races in Canada; had never won a race on dirt; had never even been in a Grade I Stakes race. His trainer drove him from New Mexico to Kentucky. He was off to a poor start this year and wouldn't have been in the Derby at all had so many of the early entries not dropped out. Old Fashioned, Quality Road, Win Willy, Take The Points, Square Eddie, among others, moved Mine That Bird up to 17th place, qualifying him for the Derby. Finally the favorite I Want Revenge was scratched the morning of the race.

Calvin Borel had been scheduled to ride Beethoven, who ended up being another withdrawal, and trainer Bennie "Chip" Woolley Jr., a former bareback rider and Quarter Horse trainer, asked him to ride Mine That Bird. Borel had never ridden the horse before the Derby, and the only instruction he got from Woolley was, "lay the horse back and be patient." Borel won the same way he had on Street Sense, by laying back and then threading around and between other horses and hugging the rail. It was a great ride. And the little horse didn't just win, he won by a bigger margin than Barbaro. He seemed to like the mud just fine.

Pioneerof the Nile was second. Musket Man was another nose back in third. Papa Clem was fourth, followed by Chocolate Candy, Summer Bird, Join in the Dance, Regal Ransom, West Side Bernie, General Quarters, Dunkirk, Hold Me Back, Advice, Desert Party, Mr. Hot Stuff, Atomic Rain, Nowhere to Hide, Friesan Fire and Flying Private.

So even though none of us were close to picking a contender, the little horse who could made us all smile and cheer. On to the Preakness!