The whole Mine That Bird story just gets more zanny …PBP 5-3-09 “Mine That Bird’s run for the roses at Kentucky Derby started with a bar brawl”
From the Herald-Leader May 5, 2009 “Rail-hugging rides are Borel’s signature”
Some interesting aspects of Calvin and so often overlooked is that he is used more often then not by lesser known trainers. On Oaks Day he rode almost exclusively for trainer Ian Wilkes, for example.
- One thing I’ve always wondered about Calvin “Bo-Rail,” is how often does his ride-the-fence style make him the victim of the jockey’s worse nightmare, the injurious spill?
“Well, does 39 different broken bones, a plate in his wrist and no spleen sound like he’s had some spills?” asked Jerry Hissam, Borel’s jockey agent since 1991, on Monday.
Well, yes.
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Yet Borel always goes back to the rail. Says Hissam: “Calvin’s always said if you begin racing with fear, it’s time to quit racing.”
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Other than Susan Boyle, has anyone had a better career breakthrough in their 40s than Calvin Borel? More or less a career journeyman until he reached middle age, Borel, 42, has finishes of first, third and first in his last three Kentucky Derbys.
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With his wins on the regal filly Rachel Alexandra in the Kentucky Oaks on Friday and Mine That Bird in the Derby on Saturday, Borel became only the seventh jockey to win both in the same year.
- For a guy who has, in the last four years, now won two Kentucky Derbys, a Travers Stakes, a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Kentucky Oaks, I’m not sure Borel gets access to the quality of horses to ride that those accomplishments merit.
- “For whatever reason, Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher, Bobby Frankel, they don’t seem to call Calvin,” says Churchill Downs’ Asher about some of the nation’s elite trainers. “So Calvin just beats them, especially when they come here.”
Hooray for Calvin, what an exciting finish, and his ride back to the winner’s circle was so filled with enthusiasm and happiness, it was great!
Now the interesting part, is that Mine that Bird is sired by a Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone, who is sired by Kentucky Derby winner, Grindstone, and Grindstone is by another Kentucky Derby winner: Unbridled! On the mares side, the mare is by the same sire (Smart Strike) who produced CURLIN and ENGLISH CHANNEL. Of course since he was only a $9,500 yearling from the first crop of Birdstone, I guess all those who “really know” weren’t interested 
I just loved seeing a nice cheap gelding beating all those high priced colts! It is about time that horses were bred for racing and NOT for the darn sales arena!
Hope that he and Calvin have a fantastic and winning trip in the Preakness. He surely has the pedigree to carry him along.
[QUOTE=sporthorsefilly;4071857]
Of course since he was only a $9,500 yearling from the first crop of Birdstone, I guess all those who “really know” weren’t interested … I just loved seeing a nice cheap gelding beating all those high priced colts! It is about time that horses were bred for racing and NOT for the darn sales arena![/QUOTE]
Not to belabor a point but as has been widely noted multiple times:he did sell at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton October Yearling Sale for $9,500, thus theoretically losing money for his breeder as Birdstone is $10k a pop. But …
After that he garnered Canadian champion two-year-old honors for his previous owners, reeling off three straight stakes wins at Woodbine, before being privately sold to Mike Allen and Dr. Leonard for $400,000 USD.
So if we’re looking for a “cheap” horse still in the hunt for this year’s American Classics and who has knocked off expensive giants that would remain multiple graded stakes winner General Quarters who was claimed for $20,000 of 1/20th of the price of Mine That Bird 
[QUOTE=867-5309;4065127]
Wow that’s it, I remarked “geez bought for $9500 as a yearling the stud fee alone was probably six figures…” guess not![/QUOTE]
Someone I know in KY told me that horse was a $400K horse. I’m not buying the $9,500 deal.
Horses can and do get sold more than once in their lifetime. He was a $9500 yearling which is way more than I would have paid for him and then later sold for $400k which looks like a bargain at the moment.
And of course it can and often does go the other way - the $400k horse can become a $9500 horse and then a $950 horse.
[QUOTE=Laurierace;4072306]
Horses can and do get sold more than once in their lifetime. He was a $9500 yearling which is way more than I would have paid for him and then later sold for $400k which looks like a bargain at the moment.[/QUOTE]
Yep and I am all for that however, that was when he was a yearling not now and therefore I think the $9,500 whoo=hoo’s that are flying around about the cheap derby horse who traveled in a pick up and stock trailer seem fake because he actually is a 400K horse for this month anyway ;). There are other cheap yearlings that run some big races and stay cheap horses :lol:
I think some would like to make this saga akin to that of the 1971 Kentucky Derby winner Canonero II which truly is one of those “you couldn’t make this up if you had to” tales. A flash back to how in hindsight how poor the connections were treated and the ‘after all that look at what he did’ feel good elements that come with the story.
I’m still surprised this wasn’t made into a screenplay yet.
Time Magazine Jun. 14, 1971 “The Year of Canonero”
Bred in Kentucky, the colt looked like an also-ran at the 1969 Keeneland Fall Sales. Not that his breeding was bad, but he was small and had a split hoof and a bad case of worms. A Venezuelan agent bought him for a paltry $1,200 and shipped him off to Caracas, where he was sold to Millionaire Horseman Pedro Baptista for $6,000.
Canonero II: The Mystery Horse Who Shocked The Derby
excerpts
The first two times he took off from Caracas,Venezuela the plane had to circle right back to the airport, once because of fire in an engine, the other because of unspecified mechanical problems. Canonero boarded a third flight, which happened to be ferrying chickens and ducks.
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Arias was not even extended the courtesy of an invitation to the annual Derby trainers’ dinner.
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Information about his Venezuelan race record was patchy, and his past performances included the bewildering line, “Missing data unavailable at this time.”
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The Churchill paddock could not accommodate all 20 Derby starters at once. Several horses, including Canonero, were saddled early and then cleared out to make room for the more highly regarded contenders. As a result, Canonero did not even have the honor of a nameplate identifying him in the paddock.
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“Canonero the Second? Who the hell was Canonero the First?” cried an incredulous journalist, who was not alone in his disbelief.
And asked why he was named Canonero “the second” the reply was because there was already a Canonero, obviously
The New York Times is reporting MTB’s height as 15.1hh. (see Joe Drape’s Twitter column on the right)
And for nostalgia’s sake, here’s the 1974 Kentucky Derby, featuring an unprecedented and never-again field of 23 horses. The best 3 year-old of that year was Little Current, a closer, who could only run down 18 horses before the finish line came up. Little Current went on to win the Preakness and Belmont quite easily. (He might have won the TC had the ‘Little Current’ Rule been in place but it took LC to limit the KD field to 20 starters.)
I remember watching that cavalry charge on tv. You couldn’t call it a horse race!
Here’s a thought:
Calvin Borel got to meet the Queen of England after his first Derby win. Maybe he will eat dinner with the Queen of Saratoga (Marylou Whitney) after this one!:):D:)
MTB is the same size as my OTTB who was on his way to the derby several yrs ago. :). Both tiny but mighty :).
ahh Little Current. On eof my all time favorites. he died a few yrs ago i believe but he was living at a tiny farm in washignton, correct? Owned by two vets who kept him as a pet. Not sure how he wound up there, but he was always one of my fav’s since i saw him
Little Current has a lovely, lovely fansite here. Includes photos from ages 1 to 31. (This horse aged really well!)
LC’s owner (John Galbreath) had planned to run him in the Arc in the fall of 1974. As a prep for that, LC ran in a turf race at Belmont (?) where he chipped his ankle and had to be retired. 
Little Current on the grass? He was by Sea-Bird out of a My Babu mare.
The 1974 Arc was an awesome race, won by the great mare Allez France, who was a US-bred daughter of Sea-Bird.
Still thinking about the race - and wonder about the pace and fractions.
How did MTB do what he did - blowing by everyone? I know it happens - last place horse passes everyone to win. I guess MTB had slow fractions, conserving energy until the stretch? Would be curious to compare his fractions to POTN. Don’t know - MTB finished 2:02 and something. What about POTN? Of course riding the rail does help.
Anyway, just curious - if POTN had won - how would his time have compared to past Derby’s.
[QUOTE=grayarabs;4074840]
Anyway, just curious - if POTN had won - how would his time have compared to past Derby’s.[/QUOTE]
It was an off track with its condition, hence the wicked slow final time, so no real comparison as per say to last year. That said Steve Crist at the Daily Racing Form lamented about the speed figs with MTB getting just a 105.
The Derby figure may seem low for a winner whose 6 3/4-lengths margin was the largest in 63 years, but that’s what it comes up using the same variant as was applied to two earlier dirt routes on the card and the seven-furlong race that followed the Derby. The track did seem to slow down in the middle of the card, and while one can never be 100 percent confident in gauging the race-to-race speed of a messy and ever-changing track, the figure seems perfectly reasonable.
A winning fig of 105 gives the three horses who finished in a photo for second – Pioneerof the Nile, Musket Man and Papa Clem – BSF’s of 95. The six Beyers they ran in their combined last two starts were all in the 92-to-101 range, and it’s hard to argue that any of them took some big step forward yesterday – they were losing steam and falling farther behind with each stride.
So to the question raised - if MTB didn’t race and the results were the same with an almost three-way tie for the win, then Pioneerof The Nile’s 95 Beyer would’ve been the lowest speed figure since their inception and measurement with the Kentucky Derby. Derby winner has ever been below a BSF of 100.
Tks GG. Assume the condition of the track a pretty big factor for the race.
MTB handled it well - the others - I guess - did not. Still cannot find POTN’s time.
Anyway - a race to remember for sure.
