Mine That Bird Able to Run Rail to Win Derby
Canadian Champion Son of Birdstone Guided Along Fence By Borel
May 2, 2009
Mine That Borel. Calvin, that is.
For the second time in three Thoroughbred racing seasons, Borel got his horse, this time Mine That Bird, to skip along the inside rail all the way from last to the wire to win the $2 million Kentucky Derby.
Bob Baffert-trained Pioneerof The Nile won the race for second best, fighting off Illinois Derby victor Musket Man and Arkansas Derby winner Papa Clem. Chocolate Candy went fifth.
Borel and The Birdstones
Borel took the same trip aboard 2007 Derby favorite Street Sense. Saturday's score with Mine That Bird, a 50-1 longshot coming in with a Sovereign Award as 2008 Canadian Two-Year-Old Male champion, was a carbon copy run of Borel's triumph on Street Sense.
Street Sense became the first Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner to also capture the Derby in his three-year-old season. In between his Derby wins, Borel finished third in Derby 2008 aboard Denis of Cork.
Mine That Bird is a gelding son of Birdstone, the little fella that spoiled the Triple Crown title party in 2004 by winning the Belmont Stakes as he flew to the wire like a swooping hawk from the outside against the exhausted Smarty Jones.
Mine That Bird Trainer Celebrates
Borel's brilliant ride gave the trainer of Mine That Bird, Bennie Woolley Jr., a reason to celebrate a grueling pickup truck trip from New Mexico to Louisville with a casted shattered leg, the result of a motorcycle accident. It took Woolley twenty-one hours to drive his Derby horse to Churchill Downs for participation in America's greatest Thoroughbred race.
It took 2:02.66 for Mine That Bird to give Woolley a place in history.
I Want Revenge Scratched
Derby favorite I Want Revenge was scratched by 9 a.m. The Wood Memorial winner showed swelling in his right front ankle, and his connections were not going to take any risks with his well-being. That call can only be applauded following a year in which every facet of Thoroughbred racing had been examined under a microscope because of the shocking on track death of filly Eight Belles in Derby 2008.
Ironically, Friesan Fire, trained by Larry Jones, who also conditioned Eight Belles, became the morning line favorite after I Want Revenge's scratch. A three-prep-race winner, Friesan Fire ended his day second to last in the field of nineteen.
Birdstone's Son Small But Mighty
After the race, interviewers asked Borel, "How did you squeeze through on the rail? There wasn't much room (alongside Join in the Dance)."
"Oh...he (Mine That Bird) is a small horse," Borel explained.
Indeed. Mine That Bird's daddy, remember, weighed in at somewhere over 900 pounds. A bird.
Birdstones don't need much room. They're all heart.
