Mine That Bird (horse)

Won Grey Breeders' Cup Stakes (CAN-G3, 8.5FA, Woodbine)
Won Swynford Stakes (CAN-L, 7FA, Woodbine)
Won Silver Deputy Stakes (CAN-L, 6.5FA, Woodbine)

2009:

Won Kentucky Derby (USA-G1, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
2nd Preakness Stakes (USA-G1, 9.5FD, Pimlico)
2nd Borderland Derby (USA-L, 8.5FD, Sunland Park)
3rd Belmont Stakes (USA-G1, 12FD, Belmont)
3rd West Virginia Derby (USA-G2, 9FD, Mountaineer Park)

Honors

Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 2015)
Ruidoso Downs Racehorse Hall of Fame (inducted in 2019)
Sovereign Award, Canadian champion 2-year-old male (2008)

As an individual

A smallish, plain, but muscular bay gelding with a smooth stride in spite of a crooked leg, Mine That Bird was capable of very sharp acceleration when at his best and was agile and handy. He appeared to lose interest in racing after surgery for an entrapped epiglottis in August 2009. In retirement, he is sociable and greedy for peppermints; he also enjoys carrots and apples as treats.

Connections

Mine That Bird was bred by Peter Lamantia, Jim Blackburn, and Needham/Betz Thoroughbreds. He began his racing career running for Dominion Bloodstock, D. Ball, and HGHR Inc. and being trained by David Coley, who purchased Mine That Bird for US$9,500 from the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale. In October 2008, Mine That Bird was bought for US$400,000 by Double Eagle Ranch (Mark Allen) and Buena Suerte Equine (Leonard Blach, DVM) in a private transaction and was transferred to the barn of Richard Mandella. Following an unplaced finish in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (USA-G1), Mine That Bird next moved to trainer Chip Woolley. The gelding’s final trainer was D. Wayne Lukas, who took over the horse following the animal’s 3-year-old season.

Pedigree notes

Mine That Bird is inbred 5x3 to two-time American champion sire Mr. Prospector, 4x4 to the great international sire Northern Dancer, and 5x5 to 1955 American Horse of the Year Nashua. He is a half brother to Dullahan (by Even the Score), who won three Grade 1 races on synthetic surfaces and was third in the 2012 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands. Mine That Bird is also a half brother to Brother Bird (by Yonaguska), winner of the 2012 Claiming Crown Iron Horse Stakes (a non-blacktype stakes).

Mining My Own, the dam of Mine That Bird, is a half sister to listed stakes winner Golden Sunray (by Crafty Prospector). She is also a half sister to Aspen Mountain (by Chief Seattle), dam of 2019 Shoemaker Mile (USA-G1) winner Bolo (by Temple City) and restricted stakes winner Build to Suit (by Dominus), and to Nono Rose (by Hard Spun), dam of multiple listed stakes winner Encoder (by English Channel).

Mining My Own and her sisters are out of Aspenelle, a daughter of Vice Regent who ran second in the 1993 Canadian Oaks. Aspenelle, in turn, is out of the listed stakes-winning Dynastic mare Little to Do, who also produced Joy’s Countess (by Geiger Counter), dam of Grade 3-placed stakes winner Blackjack Boy (by Valid Wager). Little to Do is a half sister to restricted stakes winner Crafty (by Crafty Prospector) and is out of the winning Restless Native mare Tribal to Do.

Books and media

NBC’s footage of Mine That Bird’s Derby victory can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOU1_dYNLeA.
The move 50-1 is based on Mine That Bird’s unlikely Kentucky Derby heroics. Released on March 21, 2014, it was directed by Jim Wilson and starred Skeet Ulrich, Christian Kane, and William Devane. The movie also featured Calvin Borel appearing as himself. It received mixed reviews.

Fun facts

Mine That Bird broke his maiden in a CAN$62,500 claiming race at Woodbine.
Prior to trailering Mine That Bird to Kentucky for the Derby, trainer Chip Woolley had broken his leg in a motorcycle accident. He made the drive wearing a cast and using crutches to get around when he did leave the truck. Relatively few people knew that, because of repeated infections, Woolley was actually at some risk for losing the leg until several months after the Derby.
At the time that Mine That Bird entered the Kentucky Derby, berths in the starting gate were still determined by total graded stakes earnings. The gelding’s entry caused something of a furor among some observers as he had amassed the earnings needed for the start while racing for different owners than the ones that ran him in the Derby. (Why this should have been controversial is open to question, as offers for “made” Derby horses—and sometimes changes in ownership—have been part of the business for a long time.) As it was, Mine That Bird barely made the Derby field as he was 19th on the earnings list; in fact, he was being considered for the Lone Star Derby when the decision was made to send him to Kentucky.
During the running of the Kentucky Derby, announcer Tom Durkin had his attention so riveted on bold moves on the outside by Pioneerof the Nile, Musket Man and Papa Clem that he totally missed Calvin Borel slicing through the field on Mine That Bird (making up some 30 lengths after the horse got off to a bad start and trailed the field early) and shooting through on the rail to take the lead. By the time Durkin realized that another horse had whipped past the leaders on their inside, Mine That Bird was three lengths in front and drawing off.
Mine That Bird was featured on the cover of the May 6, 2009, issue of Sports Illustrated. He was the first Thoroughbred to appear on the SI cover since Smarty Jones in 2004.
Aside from riding Mine That Bird in the Derby, Borel was also the regular pilot for star filly Rachel Alexandra, who had destroyed her field in the Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1) by more than 20 lengths the day before the Derby. (The Derby/Oaks double in the same year was the first for a jockey since Jerry Bailey pulled off the feat with Dispute and Sea Hero in 1993.) Forced to choose between the two when both were entered in the Preakness Stakes, Borel went with the filly and proved correct in his judgment when she withstood Mine That Bird’s closing run by a length.
In a rare sporting gesture, Woolley and Rachel Alexandra’s connections gave Borel the go-ahead to talk to Mike Smith about how best to ride Mine That Bird after Borel elected to continue riding Rachel Alexandra and Smith picked up the mount on the Derby winner. Smith had a second source of advice available, as his girlfriend Chantal Sutherland had ridden Mine That Bird to three consecutive wins when the gelding was a 2-year-old.
Mine That Bird was proclaimed New Mexico’s “Horse of the Year” for his feats by a unanimous vote of the state’s House of Representatives on February 11, 2010.
Following his retirement, Mine That Bird was occasionally ridden under Western tack by Double Eagle Ranch owner Mark Allen. The horse is now completely retired from even that light use but still makes appearances in support of causes such as the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, Wounded Warriors, and various cancer and children’s charities.

Photo credit

Photo taken by Jessica Morgan at the 2010 Breeders' Cup. Used by permission.

Last updated: May 15, 2021