February 3, 2010 - by Tim Wilkin - writing for
TimesUnion.com
Mine That
Bird still on R&R
And that’s what the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner will continue to do, down at the
Double Eagle Ranch in Roswell, New Mexico.
Trainer Chip Woolley said we won’t see Mine That Bird at the races again until
the summer. There is nothing wrong with the 4-year-old gelding, who sent
shockwaves through the sport when he won the Run for Roses at odds of 50-1. This
is by design.
Woolley said last year, Mine That Bird was a tired horse by the time he got to
the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where he finished ninth behind Zenyatta. That race
was the eighth of the year for Mine That Bird, who didn’t win another one after
the Derby. He was 0-5 after the first Saturday in May.
“The main thing is, we don’t want to have that many races this year,” Woolley
said by cell phone from New Mexico. “We want to go into the Breeders’ Cup this
year with a fresh horse. Last year (before the Breeders’ Cup) you could see it.
He was drawn and a little thin.”
Woolley said there has been no timetable as to when Mine That Bird will return
to the races. He assumes when the gelding does return to training, he would go
to Churchill Downs in Louisville but that has not been determined yet, either.
“We know we took a lot of this horse last year,” Woolley said. “We are going to
give him plenty of extra time this year. He looks great right now.”
After the Derby last year, Mine That Bird finished second in the Preakness,
third in the Belmont, third in the West Virginia Derby and then went to
California where he was a bust on the fake track. Before the Breeders’ Cup, he
was sixth in the Goodwood Stakes, which like the Cup, was run at Santa Anita.