keep in mind that a birdstone filly was 2nd in the Oaks the day before 
From the Blood-Horse, 05/11/04, “Birdstone Will Return ‘Home’ to Gainesway”
“We’re sending him back to where he was born,” Hendrickson said. "We opted to keep 100% of him. And we decided we’re going to price him for the long-term success, and make a statement as well by pricing him at $10,000. Our belief is, stallion fees are too high, especially for unproven horses.
"We could have gone a lot higher, obviously, but it’s all about tradition. And why go to (Smarty Jones) for $100,000 when our horse beat him? Plus, we have three grade I wins. We’re hoping, with his record and his bottom line, it makes him attractive to breeders.
"It’s not that we don’t have a high opinion of him, it’s the exact opposite. We have such a high opinion of him, we want to give him the best chance for success.
The Oaks runner-up, a Birdstone filly, was a Whitney homebred. They’ve bred a number of their mares to Birdstone, who was also bred by the Whitneys.
[QUOTE=dcm;4065103]
It looked like the trainer was pissed that all they kept asking him about was the drive from NM.[/QUOTE]
Haha that was funny. Did you see where he basically dismissed the reporter who asked that inane question (and was probably the 100th guy asking) and just kept walking?
I noticed that he didn’t pat the horse either, but give the guy a break…He did a heck of a lot of walking on crutches, with a severely broken foot! I’m sure it hurt like bastard! He scared me a bit when he threw them down to hug Calvin, I was afraid he was going to fall over. lol Then he had to hop around 'til he got them back.
All in all, a fantastic derby story. I love it when the little guys win.
edit - I was also quite impressed with MTB’s demeanor, he seems like an intelligent and confident young horse.
Agreed that it was perhaps a less then smooth race call from Tom Durkin however unless anyone has called a race of that size I wouldn’t cast stones. Even the best of the best have slight issues at times. Tom calls daily 10 races or so any most are perfectly fine.
Tom is under contract with NBC Sports to be their broadcast voice on TV. Accordingly he calls the Derby, Preakness and Belmont for television. (Marshall Cassidy, NYRA’s caller before Tom Durkin took over, and then Dave Johnson with his signature “and down the stretch they come” were the former telecast callers)
Mark Johnson - the new voice of Churchill Downs and no relation to Dave Johnson - is a good caller but I can point to more then a few undercard races yesterday that he was less then smooth if not hamfisted in his call at the wire. It happens and there isn’t a lot of need to get upset about it.
Personally I like the observant eye and vocal inflections found in the calling of Golden Gate Field’s Michael Wrona (native Aussie) and Hollywood Park’s Vic Stauffer but they too have botched calls at times.
Does anybody know what his Beyer figure was for the derby? I see that his previous high figure was 81…
Quote:
Or
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.
Mine That Bird’s Fasig-Tipton catalog page
I think a better term for Birdstone at the time of the 2007 yearling sales might have been “unproven”. And an unraced dam always raises a question mark. It behooves the buyer to find out why she was unraced.
Colts are gelded for reasons other than no pedigree, as I’m sure you all know.
I have heard several references to Mine That Bird as being “small”. If he wasn’t an outstanding physical (plain bay, small), that, combined with an unproven sire and an unraced mare pretty much gives you the reason for his relatively low price.
The median price for yearlings the day he sold was $10,000. That means 50% of horses sold that day for more than $10K, and 50% sold for less than $10K. Based on his catalog page, what I can assume about his physical, and the sale results, I would say he sold for a fair price.
All of this is just so much blah blah blah. Truth of the matter is, he ran a fabulous, heart-lifting race, and I’m so happy to have been able to see both his race and Rachel Alexandra’s. A ray of sun peeks through the gloom that has shrouded Thoroughbred racing since last year’s Derby.
Well done, Mine That Bird. Well done, Calvin Borel. Congratulations to all the connections far and wide.
[QUOTE=Glimmerglass;4066964]
(Marshall Cassidy, best known for the Secretariat call at Belmont and then Dave Johnson with his signature “and down the stretch they come” were the former telecast callers)
QUOTE]
What happened to the “and down the stretch they come” guy? I was jones-ing for that!
[QUOTE=867-5309;4067115]
[What happened to the “and down the stretch they come” guy? I was jones-ing for that![/QUOTE]
Dave Johnson is retired now but when ABC had the Kentucky Derby from 1978 to 1980 and 1987 to 2000 he called it for them. He also called (for ABC) the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes from 1987 to 2000.
And a big correction on my part it was - Charles “Chick” Anderson (not Marshall Cassidy) who called the famed Secretariat “tremendous machine” on CBS for the tv audience.
That is a pretty good interview. And done before the horse won. Fingers crossed he keeps going strong!
I loved loved loved the race, and I loved loved loved watching Calvin celebrate! What joy we all felt as a nation, not knowing a thing about the particular horse or even necessarily about horse racing in general, by just watching Calvin come back to the winner’s circle. That, to me, explains the sport, why we do this. Not to make money or beat other people, but to win races, because there IS NOTHING BETTER than winning a race. :winkgrin::D:cool:
I thought perhaps the trainer was a bit peeved after being asked on the way to the saddling paddock “What makes you think your horse belongs in this race?” Knowing he was the Canadian 2 yo champ colt I would say he belonged in there going in, and after his spectacular effort he showed them just where he belonged - out in front of the field by almost 4 lengths. 
Those of you who complained the horse didnt get enough pats didn’t see this video taken today: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/videos/watch/C6EB4380-0DD5-4D91-A2FC-FF4E8B722D01
Whoop, whoop, whoop for Calvin! You go BO-RAIL! Wonder if he will get to dine with the Queen of England again any time soon?
All in all, a lovely derby with a very feel good result for all who watched.
Spoke to Calvin’s mom-in-law just now…they are exhausted, very little sleep, lots of celebrating! Today the trainer and owner of Mine The Bird were at the Barbaro statue, giving away the roses from yesterday and signing autographs!
And Calvin says the horse loves treats, is loved on by the trainer and gets lots of attention! He is a very special horse.
[QUOTE=Lori T;4067368]
Spoke to Calvin’s mom-in-law just now…they are exhausted, very little sleep, lots of celebrating! Today the trainer and owner of Mine The Bird were at the Barbaro statue, giving away the roses from yesterday and signing autographs!
And Calvin says the horse loves treats, is loved on by the trainer and gets lots of attention! He is a very special horse.[/QUOTE]
I hope you can pass on to Calvin how much everyone loves him! I just love watching him win–I think watching him celebrate is more entertaining than the race itself!
Calvin makes me proud to be from LA. It’s not that often I get to say that!:lol:
Oh, forgot to add, he will be on the Today show tomorrow!!
As an aside - Mine That Bird was trained by Richard Mandella for one race - the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and was ridden to multiple stakes wins by Chantal Sutherland. Go figure
[QUOTE=Lori T;4067489]
Oh, forgot to add, he will be on the Today show tomorrow!![/QUOTE]
Time to go set the DVR!
[QUOTE=Beverley;4065135]
And his current trainer went out of his way to give credit to the Canadian trainer by name.
For those who expressed concern that no one was ‘fussing’ over the horse- you might consider the possibility that some horses just don’t like being fussed over- I have owned a couple such. Even if that’s not the case, really, I don’t see the big deal and am surprised it was mentioned.[/QUOTE]
Glad you brought that up, I was just about to. Some race horses just don’t want to be petted and fussed over…I have handled race and event horses that would kick anyone getting too close or touching them when they were high on the rush of competition…and with his trainer on crutches already, why risk a kick? Some folks do see all horses as pets…race horses of this caliber are rarely “pets”
And I am dismayed that the trainer was criticized here for leaving out comments about ANYTHING…he just won the Flippen’ DERBY…how many of you have had a moment like that in your life, and then had a camera stuck in your face?
And how cool for Calvin. My husband knew him waaayy back when he was racing horses at Louisiana Downs and Calvin and his brother were kids looking for rides. You talk about a story worth a movie! I just love this!
[QUOTE=Glimmerglass;4067602]
As an aside - Mine That Bird was trained by Richard Mandella for one race - the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and was ridden to multiple stakes wins by Chantal Sutherland. Go figure :)[/QUOTE]
Chantal Sutherland was on the Animal Planet show, Jockeys, wasn’t she? Was that series filled last fall? I remember watching the Breeders Cup race, but can’t remember… huh. Interesting.
Excellent race though. And what an incredible jockey and horse.
[QUOTE=JER;4066691]
From the Blood-Horse, 05/11/04, “Birdstone Will Return ‘Home’ to Gainesway”
The Oaks runner-up, a Birdstone filly, was a Whitney homebred. They’ve bred a number of their mares to Birdstone, who was also bred by the Whitneys.[/QUOTE]
It seems like that strategy, of going for a low introductory stud fee and hoping he’ll get classy mares and take off, rather than price him into the stratosphere and try to make money off of a few brave folk before the stud fee plummets, is going to pay off both for Gainesway and for the horse. Excellent.
It will be really interesting to see how many mares go to him now.
One thing that struck me is how so many of the Derby jockeys said before the race, on ESPN’s undercard coverage, that they had never ridden the horse, never been on the horse.
Then Borel said how when he had ridden MTB in the morning, the little horse had showed him something. What I love best about Borel is that he is a horseman, not a jockey. That is what Carl Naftzger termed him. I bet he had the confidence, and gave MTB the ocnfidence, to slam through that hole because he had ridden him some.
I do feel for Larry Jones to have Friesian Fire make such a poor showing and I am sure it was because he grabbed a quarter. No one deserves a break more than Jones. Maybe he’ll bring back Friesian, who I think is a classy horse, to Saratoga or Breeders Cup and go out with a splash.
