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Donerail didn’t try the Preakness, but Giacomo did and he finished third at 6-1. It would figure Mine That Bird’s odds would take a precipitous drop as well. Incidentally, Mine That Bird’s sire, Birdstone, upset Smarty Jones in his Triple Crown bid when he won the Belmont Stakes at 36-1. The Kentucky-bred made his first five starts at Woodbine, showing nothing in his debut but winning his next four, including three stakes following a victory in a $62.5 claiming race, to wrap up the Sovereign Award as Canada’s top 2-year-old.
The intoxication of success brought the colt to Santa Anita where he finished last of 12 in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Mine That Bird was trained by David Cotey, who purchased the gelding for $9,500 and owned him in partnership with Derek Ball, Dominion Bloodstock and HGHR Inc. They sold the gelding to current owners for $400,000. He made two starts at 3, both at Sunland Park, finishing a neck back in second in the Borderland Derby, then fourth in the Sunland Derby in his final Kentucky Derby prep race March 29. As a May 10 foal, it could be said that he was only 2 years old when he won the Kentucky Derby.
| Video | Date | Race Name | Distance | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 05/02/2009 | Kentucky Derby (Churchill Downs) | 1 1/4 Miles | 1st | |
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03/29/2009 | Sunland Derby (Sunland Park) | 1 1/8 Miles | 4th |
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02/28/2009 | Borderland Derby (Sunland Park) | 1 1/16 Miles | 2nd |
| 10/25/2008 | Breeders' Cup Juvenile (Santa Anita) | 1 1/16 Miles | 12th | |
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10/05/2008 | Grey S. (Woodbine) | 1 1/16 Miles | 1st |
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09/14/2008 | Swynford S. (Woodbine) | 7 Furlongs | 1st |
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08/23/2008 | Silver Deputy S. (Woodbine) | 6 1/2 Furlongs | 1st |
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08/04/2008 | Maiden Claiming (Woodbine) | 6 Furlongs | 1st |
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07/20/2008 | Maiden Special Weight (Woodbine) | 6 Furlongs | 5th |
MIKE SMITH
Calvin Borel became the first jockey in memory to willingly give up a Kentucky Derby-winning mount for another mount since Jacinto Vasquez stayed with Ruffian in her match against Foolish Pleasure in 1975.
On only two other occasions did a jockey not ride a winning Kentucky Derby mount back in the Preakness: Don Meade rode 1933 winner Broker’s Tip in the Derby; Joe Smith was 10th with the colt in the Preakness; and Ira Hanford won the 1936 Derby with Bold Venture, to be replaced by George Woolf when the colt came back to win the Preakness. The Derby-winning jocks did not have Preakness mounts either year.
In looking for a replacement, the owners and trainer from New Mexico picked one of Roswell’s favorite sons, 43-year-old Mike Smith, Hall of Fame jockey who has won one of his 10 previous Preakness mounts, that with Prairie Bayou in 1993. Smith comes into the Preakness about 200 races short of hitting the 5,000-victory plateau. Holy Bull, Thunder Gulch, Lure, Sky Beauty
His success matches his popularity: He was awarded an ESPY as top U.S. jockey in 1993; an Eclipse Award as top jockey in 1993 and 1994; the Mike Venezia Award in 1994 and the George Woolf Award in 2000. He was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 2003.
The son of a jockey, he has been riding since he was 11 and took out a license as a 16-year-old, serving his apprenticeship at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota before coming to New York. He’s survived serious accidents, including the fracture of two vertebrae in 1998, which put him in a body cast for several months, but he’s never left the list of top jockeys, showing his skills are still sharp with his tally in the 2005 Kentucky Derby with the 50-1 Giacomo.
DOUBLE EAGLE RANCH & BUENA SUERTA EQUINE
The Double Eagle Ranch training and breeding center near Roswell, N.M., is owned by Mark Allen; Buena Suerta Equine Clinic is owned by Dr. Leonard Blach, a veterinarian. Double Eagle stands a stallion named So Long Birdie, a half-brother to Birdstone. The farm caters to thoroughbreds and quarter horses. The farm has a good reputation in the southwest; one of its past studs was Irish champion Danzatore, a son of Northern Dancer. Among others, Danzatore sired Reraise, sprint champion of 1998. Double Eagle is run by Jerry Nicodemus, an inductee into the Quarterhorse Hall of Fame.
BENNIE 'CHIP' WOOLLEY,JR.
“I feel like my horse will run a top-notch race,” the 45-year-old Woolley told the El Paso Times, not long after his 21-hour van ride from New Mexico – with a galloping break at Lone Star – ended in the Churchill Downs barn area in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby. “It’s a super nice rig,” Woolley said, telling reporters that he saved $50,000 by opting for his own land route to Louisville. Woolley, a Bloomfield, N.M., native and former rodeo rider who has been training thoroughbreds since 1983, watched the Derby while on crutches, having suffered multiple fractures of his right ankle from a motorcycle accident. The hobbling Woolley reminded racegoers of then-trainer Elliot Walden, who was on crutches in the winners’ circle following Victory Gallop’s Belmont Stakes triumph of 1998.
LAMANTA, BLACKBURN & NEEDHAM/BETZ THOROUGHBREDS
Mine That Bird was sold by his breeders for $9,500 at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale. Needham/Betz Thoroughbreds is a commercial breeding operation co-owned by Phil Needham and Bill Betz, who have been partners for 20 years. Needham/Betz generally consigns some 25 horses to the Keeneland September yearling sale and a few yearlings to the Fasig-Tipton July and Saratoga yearling sales. Their 280-acre farm is located near Fasig-Tipton Kentucky in Lexington, where they have approximately 60 broodmares. The farm keeps a few fillies to race and to build its broodmare band. Top horses bred by Needham/Betz Thoroughbreds (singly or in partnership) include El Corredor, Roman Ruler, Dubai Escapade, Madcap Escapade, Tricky Squaw, Dignitas and Silver Tornado.
