[QUOTE=slc2;4066120]
Uhmm…that was what they call a jockey’s race, dear.
I dare say both the jockey and the trainer were aware of that.[/QUOTE]
Well… while this is indisputably true, I’m not sure it’s the WHOLE story, SLC. That little guy has the presence and running style of a stayer. I’ll be wicked interested in the Belmont!
“Horses who come from off the pace
Love to win and hate to race!”
[QUOTE=AllyCat;4065896]
If only he wasn’t a gelding :)[/QUOTE]
They were talking about Birdstone’s fee, the sire of MTB. Not MTB himself.
[QUOTE=Barnfairy;4066118]
If you are referring to Tom Durkin’s call for the tv viewers, then yes, I would agree that was not his best call.
Churchill announcer Mark Johnson’s call was smooth as silk (replay with his call is linked within this Blood Horse article.)[/QUOTE]
Why oh why didn’t they use that announcer??? Thanks for that link!
There were two articles in the Toronto Star this morning.
One on the front page, titled “Toronto Trainer sold Derby victor” (which I cannot find on line) quoted Dave Cotey “I am so happy for him. I’m ecstatic. I’d love to be down there to give him a big kiss”…“I am happy as hell tonight.” “Look, I sold him last fall because he was a gelding. He has no residual value.”
“I like buying yearlings, racing and selling. That’s what I do. I made almost $800,000 with the horse. I bought 36 new horses and paid a lot of bills with the money I got for Mine That Bird”.
Cotey, who watched the race from Woodbine Racetrack, bought the horse two years ago for $9,500 and then sold him last fall for $400,000 to a New Mexico group."
The other article, in the Sports Section, is on line.
http://www.thestar.com/Sports/HorseRacing/article/628195
Let’s hope that people keep track of him and that he has a great second career when he is finished with racing.
Mine that Bird was a cheap yearling from an unfashionable stallion and a nothing mare. He was bought to be a racehorse. This would explain the gelding part.
It’s a huge myth that any Derby winner will go on to be a decent breeding stallion. If you want to replicate a Derby winner, you’re better off going back to the parents of the Derby winner than trying for one from the Derby winner himself.
The Gainesway site used to have a video of Birdstone that showed him walking and cantering in his paddock. Great, great walk as well as a great shoulder for galloping. But, like MTB, he was small and plain at 3.
what a race!
I drove up to my friends dorm room to watch it with her on campus…and what a race! We were just left dumb-founded as this little gelding turned for home and put the pedal to the medal. Talk about haulin’ass!
Like the commentators said- walking back in front of the grand-stands it looked like a scene from seabiscuit! That little horse could care less whats happening on his back or around him. What a trooper.
we were teary eyed watching Calvin’s reaction. He deserves every bit of the fame and win and glory from this. I think its very much a rags to ritches story. Hes a very well built, lovely looking horse who only sold for 9500 as a yearling. His trainer is basically a no-name, who drove him by himself, broken-ankle and all to the derby.
I think the horse was sort of left wondering “what did i just do?”.
Trainer and the connections seemed to be caught up in it all and didnt really give the horse the credit. I think everyone was caught up in Calvin’s exictment. Congrats to them all though, they deserved it. Im sure the horse got lots of love on his way back to the barns and all night long.
Is Calvin Borel the best jockey in the United States these days? Seems that the bazillion dollar outfits don’t like him very much. I wonder if he chose MTB because he had no other choice or because he really liked the horse.
This made me laugh! So true. Especially with regard to his cavalier attitude, walking back along the screaming crowds AND Calvin jumping around and hollering on his back, he may as well have been going for a walk hack in a quiet park. To the horse, it was just another gallop! I didn’t notice any fatigue - at all. What an interesting horse!
[QUOTE=lesson junkie;4066156]
Just saw Calvin in a short taped interview on ESPN. He gave the colt all the credit, then added the trainer in the next breath.[/QUOTE]
I really like Calvin, he really seems to appreciate the horses and just appears to be a down-to-earth nice guy. Very glad he won the Oaks and Derby this year.
The more I watch the NBC coverage, the more I realize how lazy our media has become. Not only do they focus on a minor “(fill in name of country we want to disparage) flu” so they don’t have to talk about real issues, they can’t even do their homework on sports any more. I watched the comment again and again with different interviewers with the trainer and I have to say, I don’t blame him one bit for getting snappy when being asked for the 90th time about the frickin drive to Louisville. They don’t call 'em the Press Corps(e) for nothing.
This article was cited to on PedigreeQuery re: MTB’s owners. Apparently Mark Allen is the son of the Allen who was so prominent in the Ted Stevens corruption case.
http://sports.yahoo.com/rah/news?slug=ap-kentuckyderby-owner&prov=ap&type=lgns
[QUOTE=Eventer13;4066453]
I really like Calvin, he really seems to appreciate the horses and just appears to be a down-to-earth nice guy. Very glad he won the Oaks and Derby this year.[/QUOTE]
You are absolutely correct about Calvin.
[QUOTE=DLee;4065965]
Did anyone besides me feel like it was not a well called race? As in announcer? Alot of tripping over names, and certainly missing who Mine That Bird was for quite some time. Kind of surprising.[/QUOTE]
The caller completely missed Calvin coming up on the rail — he was so focused on 3 horses and he almost paused for a second before he noticed MTB flying into history.
I have a visual of someone tapping him on the shoulder and saying – hello, are you
seeing the same race I’m seeing… LOL
MTB was sold as a yearling in 2007. Why would colts in the first crop of a Belmont winner whose dam was the broodmare of the year in 2006 be considered "unfashionable? And why would MTB’s dam, who was by the same sire as the winner of the Derby just 5 months prior to the sale where MTB was sold, be considered “nothing” even if unraced?
I would think that pedigree would warrent more than $9500 and not be reason for gelding, even if the horse was small and plain as a youngster.
Bird"s last quarter
I figure his last quarter was around 23.2…but being mathmatically challenged, I would like to put it to the more talented numerically to figure this out. But that sounds like one of the fastest last quarters in the Derby. No discussion in the media of his sensational burst of speed at the quarter, leaving those colts in his wake…the word “speed” is never mentioned with his name attached. am I missing something?
You know I was thinking too, isn’t that final time (was it 2:02 and something, right?) pretty decent, one that would have one many KY Derbys on a fast track - and he did it on a sloppy track! I may have to do some research on this, but I seem to recall pleny of 2:02 & change winning Derby’s.
Arcadien, coping with Derby party hangover today lol.
The damline is not nothing. His second dam was second in the Canadian Oaks, and her dam was a multiple stakes winner. It’s more a “breed to race” line than anything else. Maybe not great or even very good, but certainly not “nothing”.
Seems like quite a few of the recent Derby winners have come from dam lines that haven’t been stellar performers.
Anybody notice that Summer Bird, finished 6th, is also by Birdstone?
Anyone have a link to a clip where Bird is walking/trotting?
[QUOTE=lwk;4066555]
Anybody notice that Summer Bird, finished 6th, is also by Birdstone?[/QUOTE]
Yes. And this is only his first 3 yr old foal crop. Me thinks we have a SIRE.
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