Thursday, July 02, 2009
Mine That Bird’s People Made the Right Call
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, July 1, 2009--Calvin Borel’s loss of his Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird as a future mount was inevitable and probably the best scenario for both parties.
Trainer Chip Woolley might have known that taking Mine That Bird far back off the early pace was the gelding’s hole card, but it’s quite another thing to execute the tack so effectively.
Call it right place, right time, or anything you please. But it’s doubtful whether any jockey who ever lived could have gotten as much out of the son of Birdstone as Borel did on the first Saturday this past May.
We’re not just referring to his death defying instincts and superb timing. And if you believe that description to be hyperbolic, go back to the videotape. That final sloppy sixteenth of a mile still seems unbelievable coming at the end of such an enervating run.
Borel’s exhibition, identified by many veteran observers as the best ride they had ever seen, completed a Cinderella story that began in the back of an old pickup 2,100 miles away and ended up a never to be forgotten piece of Derby history.
Should that dream become a reality, it’s doubtful Borel will ever stop crying when called on to accept his plaque at the Racing Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
Kentucky Derby 135 will be a moment that Borel and Woolley never will forget, but their association ended this week when Mine That Bird’s trainer and owners decided that enough was enough; they wouldn’t play the game of second call again.
The problem, of course, was that on the afternoon before the Derby, the real Cinderella of 2009 became a household name by virtue of her jaw-slackening victory in the Kentucky Oaks.
Woolley might have been an unknown but he’s nobody’s fool. He understood that Borel was emotionally attached and had a huge financial future aboard Rachel Alexandra, so he gave his Derby rider time to commit.
And so everyone waited while the filly’s new owners wrestled with their decision to run in the Preakness, or not. They made their decision, Borel made his, and the connections of Mine That Bird lived with all of it, hiring Hall of Famer Mike Smith for the Preakness.
When they welcomed Borel back aboard Mine That Bird for the Belmont, they were roundly criticized for being soft on what was perceived as Borel’s disloyalty.
But Woolley was smart enough to know that it was business, not personal, and he believed Borel gave Mine That Bird his best chance for redemption in the crown’s final jewel, thanking Borel by giving him a chance to accomplish what no Triple Crown rider had ever done before.
When Borel blew out the gelding in advance of the Belmont and “guaranteed” victory, Woolley might have winced but also had to be pleased his rider had so much confidence--too much, as it turned out.
After the Preakness, and again following the Mother Goose, no one can argue that Borel made the right choice. But this week it was Woolley who made the right decision. “This deal here’s a little different,” Woolley said this week.
Actually, it was a lot different. This time Borel and agent Jerry Hissam overstepped. Either that, or they think Warrior’s Reward is going to be the better three-year-old colt in the second half of this season.
Either way, it was the right business decision since Borel rides more horses for Ian Wilkes and his mentor, Carl Nafzger, at Churchill Downs than he’d ever ride for Woolley in New Mexico.
Woolley probably gets that but Team Borel’s hedging on whether they would ride Warrior’s Reward in the Jim Dandy or Mine That Bird in the West Virginia Derby on the same day just wouldn’t stand.
Rightfully so.
Warrior’s Reward is a colt on the come. He finished second in the Grade 3 Northern Dancer following an impressive romp in a previous Churchill Downs allowances.
Warrior’s Reward starts in Saturday’s Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park, Borel up.
Mine That Bird’s major remaining targets are the Travers and Breeders’ Cup Classic, with the Mountaineer race a bridge to Saratoga with another unspecified race heading into Santa Anita this fall.
Team Borel is doing what’s best for their future business. For Mine That Bird’s people, the future is now. They want the same rider for the gelding’s four remaining starts this year.
And so Woolley et al have made the right decision. Time will well whether Borel and company did the same.
Written by John Pricci
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