May 4th, 2009

May 2nd, Derby Day at Churchill Downs, was a day that produced many surprises.

Pre-race favorite I Want Revenge had done nothing wrong all week and looked for all the world like a winner, but a vets exam led to a scratch at 8 AM Derby morning.

For several days the weatherman had called for rain on Derby Day, even predicting an eighty percent chance of rain as late as Friday afternoon.  Nary a drop fell after nine AM.

And then there was the biggest surprise of all.  No, not the win by 50-1 shot Mine That Bird, though that was surely surprise enough.  No, it was the way he won, virtually demolishing a field that up to Derby Day was en route to being considered an elite group of three year-old colts that were perhaps even destined to be the equal of the 2007 group that included Street Sense, Hard Spun, Curlin, Any Given Saturday, Nobiz Like Shobiz, and others.

A short while before the Derby, Saturday’s winner came from New Mexico in a two horse trailer pulled by a pick-up truck and driven by his trainer, Bennie Woolley.

On Saturday, Mine That Bird came from twenty lengths out of it and, ridden by Calvin Borel, whooshed past the rest of the field so fast that the draft he created might’ve had a drying effect on the sloppy Churchill strip.

And Presto! A horse that just a short while prior to the race had barely qualified under the graded stakes earnings requirement, was being crowned the 2009 Kentucky Derby Champion.

It’s long been said around the race track that a good horse can come from anywhere.  This good horse comes from a modest pedigree, a fourth-place finish in the Sunland Derby, and twenty lengths back.  And he doesn’t just win, he demolishes his field with style.

Losing mutuel tickets fell like rain, mine among ‘em!

The Kentucky Derby.  Wow!  There’s nothing else quite like it.

Respectfully,

Paul H. Rothfuss

Paul H. Rothfuss