We had a Kentucky Derby won by a 50-1 longshot, Mine That Bird, a gelding that once sold for $9,500 as a yearling. He was trained by Bennie L. "Chip" Woolley Jr.,  a black hat wearing cowboy from New Mexico who some years earlier befriended Mark Allen, one of Mine That Bird’s owners, in a bar fight. The trainer had saddled just one winner this year before the Derby. Anyone outside of New Mexico who knew him was probably a relative.

The Preakness was won by Rachel Alexandra, a filly bred by Dolphus Morrison, a retired businessman from Alabama with a modest breeding and racing operation. That’s right, Alabama, not exactly horse country. But it puts an addendum on the old adage that a good horse can come from anywhere. So can a good horse breeder, and Morrison has enjoyed success as a breeder even before Rachel Alexandra became a national star.

The Belmont winner, Summer Bird, was bred and owned by a couple from India who are retired medical professionals. Dr. Kalarikkal Jayaraman was a cardiologist and wife Vilasini was a pathologist who discovered a love of horse racing in Arkansas and eventually bought a farm in Ocala, Fla., where Kalarikkal Jayaraman trains the young horses before sending them to the racetrack. Summer Bird’s trainer, Tim Ice, is in his first year as a head trainer. His earliest memories of racing come from Waterford Park in West Virginia, a track that used to be the poster child for the leaky roof circuit until West Virginia got slot machines and the track was transformed into Mountaineer Park.

The only “spoiler” in the little guy Triple Crown was Jess Jackson, a billionaire winemaker from California who bought Rachel Alexandra from Morrison and a partner after her 20 ¼-length win in the Kentucky Oaks. Morrison is a traditionalist when it comes to racing, saying he didn’t think fillies belong in the Classic races, which he believes should be a showcase for future stallion prospects (that would seem to preclude geldings from running in them, too). But Morrison is also a capitalist, and was willing to sell his prized filly for the right price.

Jackson, despite his many years as a racing fan (as a young child he saw Seabiscuit run in Northern California), is not a traditionalist. He likes to see the best run against the best, especially if he has a stake in the outcome. He swooped in to Baltimore and won the Preakness with Rachel Alexandra, then exited center stage with the Medaglia d’Oro filly. Where or when she’ll resurface is anyone’s guess, but let’s hope it brings on the same dramatics as the Preakness.

Among the beaten in this Triple Crown were Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed, who in addition to being a leading buyer at virtually every major sale throughout the world, purchased the top two 2-year-old colts in training in North America last year, Eclipse Award winner Midshipman and runner-up Vineyard Haven (shouldn’t Jess Jackson have bought a horse with that kind of name?). The sheikh, for reasons of pride, insists on training his horses in Dubai each winter and dispersing them to major races like the Kentucky Derby, a program that hasn’t yet been very successful. To Kentucky he came, he saw, he failed to conquer.

Triple Crown training king D. Wayne Lukas failed to hit the board in the three Triple Crown races, but it was good to have him back on the beat after a drought. Bob Baffert came to Churchill Downs in search of his fourth Kentucky Derby win with a live contender, Pioneerof the Nile, but after finishing a distant second behind Mine That Bird was left repeating the line from the movie “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” And Nick Zito, who talks of Triple Crown glory in almost Biblical terms, made appearances in the Derby and Belmont, but couldn’t muster much of a run in either race. These three Hall of Famers help make the classic races something special.

Then there is Todd Pletcher, a future Hall of Famer and multi-Eclipse Award winning-training who seems to be followed by a dark cloud whenever he comes to Churchill Downs in the springtime. Pletcher started three in this year’s Derby, failing to hit the board with any of them, and is now 0-for-24 in America’s most famous horse race. Hang in there, Todd. As a Chicago Cubs fan who was not around for their last World Series championship in 1908, I feel your pain. Cub fans have an expression that might work for you, too: Wait till next year.

Some additional thoughts from a Triple Crown notebook:
- Major stakes at Oaklawn Park produced two Triple Crown race winners, Rachel Alexandra, who won the Grade 2 Fantasy Stakes as her final prep before the Kentucky Oaks, and Summer Bird, who was third behind Papa Clem and Old Fashioned in the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby. It is amazing to many people (except for those on the Graded Stakes Committee) that the Arkansas Derby remains a Grade 2 race after producing Triple Crown races winners like Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Curlin and now Summer Bird in recent years.

- Sunland Park races deserve closer examination in the grading process as well. Mine That Bird came to Kentucky after two races at the New Mexico track: second in the Borderland Derby and fourth in the Sunland Derby. Gabby’s Golden Gal, winner of Saturday’s Grade 1 Acorn on the Belmont undercard, won the Sunland Park Oaks. No Sunland Park races have ever been graded by the committee, but since the addition of slot machine revenue they have dramatically increased purses and improved the quality of runners the races attract.

- Breeders should be excited about the emergence of two young Kentucky-based sires, Birdstone and Medaglia d’Oro, whose first crop of foals are now aged three. Birdstone, who upset Smarty Jones in his Triple Crown bid at the 2004 Belmont and also won the Champagne and Travers, sired Mine That Bird and Summer Bird. He stands at the Beck family’s Gainesway Farm. Medaglia d’Oro, a top racehorse over several seasons who finished a close second to longshot Sarava in the 2002 Belmont before winning the Jim Dandy and Travers, sired Rachel Alexandra. Medaglia d’Oro, who started his career at John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale, then moved to the Haisfield family’s Stonewall Stallions, was the subject of a recent bidding war involving several stallion farms, with Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley emerging last week as the winner.

- “Practice? We’re talking about practice.” Did Calvin Borel move too soon in the Belmont aboard Mine That Bird? Would some practice runs on the mile-and-a-half Belmont oval in preliminary races on Belmont Day or earlier in the week have benefited the lovable Cajun, who shrugged off his lack of experience at Belmont Park as not important while boldly guaranteeing victory for Mine That Bird? Borel became a media darling during this year’s Triple Crown, which he nearly swept on two horses. He jetted to California for the “Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” made an appearance on “Late Night With David Letterman,” was a hit during a Triple Crown luncheon and never seemed to stop talking. He did everything but ride during the week of the Belmont. But if someone had asked Calvin about practicing over the Belmont Park strip before the race, is it possible he would have said something like this?

- Business on the Triple Crown was strong in light of the poor economy. Betting on the Derby was down, not surprisingly. The morning line favorite, I Want Revenge, was scratched and wet track conditions such as those horseplayers found on Derby Day generally lead to wagering declines. Preakness betting was up significantly from 2008, though attendance took a huge hit when Magna officials changed their policy and prohibited fans from bringing their own beer into the infield. The Belmont, whose numbers boom when there is a Triple Crown on the line, did not have that advantage this year, but did well in comparison to the last non-Triple Crown year, 2007. Adding to the good news was increased television ratings for the Derby and Preakness on NBC. ABC’s Belmont Stakes telecast will almost certainly have a smaller audience than in 2008, when Big Brown was going for a Triple Crown.

How much handle from the Triple Crown is leaking to offshore bookmakers offering online wagering is anyone’s guess. These businesses do not have contracts with racetracks or horsemen’s organizations, and pay nothing to support the game. It’s beyond me why anyone who cares about horse racing would do business with these sites or  (whether they are established publications, web sites, or fan blogs) accept advertising from them. They are aggressive in seeking places to advertise, and are willing to pay top dollar to market their products. Again, they put nothing back into the game. The Paulick Report refuses to accept advertising from these businesses and applauds all the other web sites and publications who have a similar policy.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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