It was fun to see Mine That Bird up close and personal this morning, looking fresh and relaxed outside stall 40 in the Pimlico stakes barn, the traditional home to the Derby champ.

Cowboy trainer, Chip Woolley, is a real gentleman as well and a big part of this pint-sized gelding’s unlikely tale. He held court with the media graciously and has grown comfortable with his first journey down the Triple Crown trail.

There are enough people that who aren’t giving the Kentucky-bred, New Mexico-based, Canadian champion much chance to repeat his Derby, shocker, however. And among that group is one of my favorite horseplayers, who goes by the name Schenectady Joe.

Joe emailed me following the Derby to pass along his theory that Mine That Bird should not have been 50-1 in the opening jewel of the Triple Crown but that according to form, he was really more like a 150-1 shot. The reason, Joe says, is because of all the “stupid” money bet on the Derby.  (Joe being a smart man as well as a good handicapper, revised that thought and called it “uneducated” money. How can people who bet on Mine That Bird be stupid, after all, if they stuffed their wallets with winning money.)

Anyway, Joe’s theory is that with so much money in the betting pools for races like the Derby and the Preakness an untoward amount gets placed on horses for illogical reasons such as the horse’s name, his color or the fact that his betting number may be your lucky one, which is where we get to the point of this story, as reported by the Baltimore Sun.

Apparently one of the lucky backers of Mine That Bird at the Derby was the beloved Baltimore sportsman, former Orioles great Cal Ripken.  Ripken and his wife Kelly looked long and hard at the field before Mine That Bird jumped off the page. First there was the “Bird” part, Ripken being a long-time Oriole and all.

Then there was the rider, Calvin Borel, as in “Cal.” And finally, the horse was No. 8 for the Run for the Roses, the number Ripken had on his back throughout his hall of fame career. 

With 13 betting options in Preakness 134, there will be all sorts of reasons to support any of them - from handicapping to sentimentality to numerology. Smart money or not.