Mine That Bird set to breeze Tuesday

Mine That Bird’s remarkable journey began with the Derby (EquiSport Photos)

MINE THAT BIRD (Birdstone), who shocked the racing world by winning
the Kentucky Derby (G1) at 50-1 and thrust relatively unknown trainer
Bennie “Chip” Woolley Jr. into the national spotlight, has settled in
well at Santa Anita after arriving at 2 a.m. (PDT) Friday morning to
prepare for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on November. 7.

The three-year-old gelding is scheduled to have his first workout
over Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride main track Tuesday morning for his immediate
objective, the $350,000 Goodwood S. (G1) on October 10, a nine-furlong
race Woolley expects will lead to the Classic at 1 1/4 miles.

“I just wanted to give him one more day to adjust to the change in
surface,” Woolley said in explaining the decision to breeze Tuesday
instead of Monday. “He’ll go out after the break (shortly after 8 a.m.)
and probably go five eighths (of a mile). The horse is doing super.”

Jockey Joe Talamo, who missed his first Kentucky Derby mount when
morning-line favorite I Want Revenge (Stephen Got Even) was scratched
the day of the race, will work Mine That Bird, who galloped two miles
Sunday morning.

“We had tried to ride the horse early in the year,” explained
Talamo’s agent, Scott McClellan, “and I had met him (Woolley), and Joe
had expressed an interest in helping him, if he needed someone to work
the horse. So I asked Woolley, and he said it might be good.”

Mine That Bird and Woolley prior to the Belmont (Adam Coglianese/NYRA)

“He won four in a row on synthetic at Woodbine, and he ran respectable in the
Breeders’ Cup last year,” Woolley pointed out. “He came up a little empty down
the lane, but I’m kind of sure he’ll handle it OK. He kind of seems to carry his
race track with him wherever he goes. We haven’t run into one he didn’t like
yet.”

Mine That Bird is winless in three starts since capturing the Kentucky Derby
by 6 3/4 lengths under Calvin Borel, with whom he’ll reunite for the Goodwood.
Second to Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d’Oro) in the Preakness S. (G1) with Mike
Smith in the saddle and third in the Belmont S. (G1) under Borel, Mine That Bird
was last seen running third in the West Virginia Derby (G2) with Smith.

Woolley maintains an understated perspective about his Derby victory.

“Sure, I pinch myself every once in a while,” he said. “Even some of the guys
who were expected to win the Derby, I don’t think were ever prepared to win it.
It’s pretty surreal, you know. I’m sure until a man has some time to sit back at
home a few years later and really enjoy it, it will always seem a little bit
unreal.”