By Art Wilson, Columnist - LA Daily News

Planning next move for Mine That Bird

February 4, 2010 - While most eyes are on the Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra camps for news about when they'll make their 2010 debuts, there's another racing star who'll soon be ready to make his first start of the year.

Mine That Bird, the second-biggest long shot to win the Kentucky Derby after he came charging home in the slop to rout his 18 rivals by 6 3/4 lengths last May, is resting comfortably at co-owner Mark Allen's Double Eagle Training Center in Roswell, N.M.

The Birdstone gelding will begin training again sometime in March, according to the horse's second owner, Dr. Leonard Blach, and might be pointed toward a stakes race at Churchill Downs to kick off his 4-year-old campaign.

The ultimate goal is another start in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.

"He's feeling real good now, and he's put on some weight," said the 75-year-old Blach, who's been a veterinarian for 50 years and owned and bred horses for more than 40. "We just wanted to give him at least four months off since the Breeders' Cup, let him rest up a little bit and then we'll just put him on the campaign trail again.

"We haven't decided what stakes he'll run in yet, but we'll look at that some time in the near future."

Of course, the way Mine That Bird ran in Kentucky makes it a natural that he'd race at Churchill again.

"He liked that track and it was kind of home base for him," Blach said. "There are several races there for him and we could branch out from there and go hit a stakes race here and there."

Blach said plans are to back off Mine That Bird a bit in 2010 so they can keep him healthy and run him a few years. He raced six times as a 2-year-old, winning four races, and came back and ran eight races as a 3-year-old.

Overall, Mine That Bird has won five of 14 starts, although he's winless in five tries since his Derby shocker.

"That schedule was pretty difficult, pretty hard on him," Blach said. "But we just had to keep on that schedule once we got started. So this time we're going to back off him and probably run him in four or five stakes races this year."

Blach and Allen purchased Mine That Bird privately for $400,000 after he won the Grade III Grey Stakes at Woodbine Park in Toronto late in his 2-year-old season. In the first start for his new owners about three weeks later, he finished last during a wide trip in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.

After a pair stakes races at Sunland Park in New Mexico, Blach and Allen had a dilemma - the graded money he'd earned as a 2-year-old in Canada made him eligible for the Kentucky Derby despite the fact it appeared on paper that he had no shot to win.

"We didn't think we had that kind of horse that needed to go in there even though we qualified by earnings," Blach said. "So we decided not to go. Then, four days later, (Churchill officials) called again and said we'd moved up on the list.

"So Mark and I talked about it again and that's when we decided that since the opportunity had been knocking on the door twice, maybe we should listen to it this time and think about it. We decided we'd go, just have some fun."

The rest is history.

Jockey Calvin Borel got out of the gate slowly, had to steady Mine That Bird early in the race because he was getting so much mud kicked in his face, steered him to the rail and then closed in the stretch like the rest of the field was mired in quicksand.

Blach, who owns the Buena Suerte Equine Center in Roswell that specializes in the breeding of both thoroughbreds and quarter horses, was flabbergasted.

"If I wasn't the most shocked person in the world, I was one of 'em," he said. "It was a very exciting time. It was indescribable. It's hard to put that in words."

Now he's ready to prove himself some more, although he doesn't need to accomplish anything else to convince his owners he's the real deal.

"We never dismissed it (Derby victory) as just a fluke," Blach said. "Whenever you can outrun that bunch of horses like Pioneerof the Nile and all those great horses in the Derby, when you outrun them you don't have a fluke, because a fluke's not going to do that."

Blach, who's involved with the disabled jockeys fund in New Mexico, sold Mine That Bird T-shirts and caps during the All-American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs to benefit the fallen riders.

Now he'd like to see his gelding win a few more stakes, perhaps put himself in the spotlight again so more paraphernalia can be marketed to help more injured jockeys.

"I think he'll come back to the forefront again," he said.


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