MINE THAT BIRD TRIUMPHANT UNDERDOG IN KENTUCKY DERBY
Trainer Chip Woolley – Unsung Hero
Except for my blog, thewinnersforum.com web site is dedicated to the great sport of horse racing. While most of you come to the stock page to read my views on stock market psychology and how the political landscape is affecting investments, I wear another hat here. My moniker is Cal-Glenn, a member of The Stallion Battalion, the stable of excellent TWF race handicappers who provide analysis and picks for racetracks around the country. Needless to say, none of us had the Kentucky Derby (video replay) winner yesterday.
The triumph of 50-to-1 longshot MINE THAT BIRD defies description. He was purchased as a yearling for $9,500, a petite amount by champion bloodline standards. He started racing at Woodbine in Ontario, Canada where he was never in contention in his very first start. He then ripped off 4 wins including a high-end Maiden-Claimer, two minor Stakes races and a less than important Grade-3 event against only 5 foes each time. Sold privately for $400,000 the new owners shipped him to Santa Anita and top rate trainer Richard Mandella, to tackle top flight competition. On October 25, he finished dead last in the Grade-1 Breeders Cup Juvenile and the owners decided to ship him off in search of softer competition in New Mexico. They handed oversight to obscure trainer Bennie ‘Chip’ Woolley, who has trained mostly quarter horses, not thoroughbreds. This is where the success story of the underdog really begins.
Woolley is not a high profile name on the thoroughbred circuit (interview day before race). Only real racing fans would even know what or where Sunland Park is. A little known trainer with a small stable (25 horses), Woolley had only 32 race starters in 2009 prior to the big race, according to the Daily Racing Form, and had only 1 win for a winning percentage of 3%. That is hardly a survivable rate in the Sport of Kings.
MINE THAT BIRD was entered in a $100K Stakes event on February 28, where he dueled hard to the wire and was beaten by a neck at the 1 mile and a sixteenth distance. He then ran in the main Derby prep race offered at the New Mexico track, the Sunland Derby with a $900,000 purse. He ran close to the pace in the mile and one-eighth contest but weakened to finish 4th.
Having qualified for the Kentucky Derby as one of the top 20 three-year-olds, on accumulated purse earnings, they decided to enter the race. Having beaten no significant horses on his road to Kentucky, the odds of success were small going up against colts proven against the rigors of facing high-level opponents. So Woolley, who had shattered his knee in a motorcycle accident, hitched a trailer and tugged MINE THAT BIRD on a 21-hour trip to every horseman’s Field of Dreams, Churchill Downs.
Woolley was on crutches as he pegged his way down the wet dirt track followed by everyone associated with the only gelded horse in the race. The least likely trainer to arrive at the most alluring starting gate in all of racing looked understated and out of his element, but wanted to be there as much as anyone could, maybe more.
AND THEY'RE OFF - The Race Begins!!!!
With Calvin Borel aboard, the journeyman jockey who steered STREET SENSE to victory from the back of the pack with a great rail trip in the 2007 race, it was déjà vu all over again. MINE THAT BIRD was squeezed back immediately as the gates opened on the famous track that was rated as sloppy. Without much choice, Borel took him right down to the rail behind most of the field. About midway he started pushing forward hugging the rail. As the race progressed the pathway opened up like Moses parting of the Red Sea. As they grooved the turn for home the three frontrunners were bobbing heads along side each other. Somehow, down the stretch, enough daylight appeared along the rail and Borel guided MINE THAT BIRD through. A fairly small horse, a larger one may not have been able to negotiate the threading of that needle (watch overheads starting at 7:35 of clip).
Once through the hole, the gelding passed the leaders along their inside and kicked away to win by nearly 7 lengths. The track announcer never even realized that Borel had threaded his way through the inside to grab the lead and his voice was the essence of surprise when he realized who was racing for daylight, literally exploding to victory in the final lengths. Being a gelding there will be no millions in stud fees coming to the owners as is usually afforded the winner of the greatest 2 minutes in sports. But the elation of achieving the supreme accomplishment in the entire industry is a feeling that money just cannot replace.