Bob Hill
Staff writer
Tracksideview.com

Fifty-two weeks ago the horseracing world was looking forward to the 2009 Belmont Stakes.  We were basking in the afterglow of the convincing win by Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness, the precursor to her incredible run to becoming the Eclipse Award-winning Horse of the Year.  Just more than two weeks had passed since the stunning 50-1 triumph by long shot Mine That Bird in the Kentucky Derby, and his second-place finish behind the “Fabulous Filly” in the Preakness had many hoping that he might indeed capture a second jewel in the Triple Crown in the upcoming marathon at Belmont Park.

What we now know is that a different son of Birdstone vaulted forward in the Belmont Stakes on his way to becoming the top three-year-old champion male of 2009.  Summer Bird won that race and went on to win the Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup as well before finishing a very respectable fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic five spots ahead of Mine That Bird.  There was every reason to be excited about his 2010 campaign.

As the made-for-Hollywood script for Mine That Bird wound down in late 2009 we were left to ponder that perhaps he is a “one-hit-wonder” that may never win another big race (or even another race) in his career.  After his Derby win, Mine That Bird finished second and third in the final legs of the Triple Crown races, and then completed the year with a third in the West Virginia Derby, a sixth in the Goodwood and a ninth-place finish in the BC Classic.  He went off to a well-deserved rest leaving all of us with many more questions than answers about his future.

None of the winners of Triple Crown races last year has won as a four-year-old.  Only Rachel Alexandra has made it back to the track, and she has two disappointing second-place finishes to her credit.  After her loss in the La Troienne on Kentucky Oaks Day, speculation began as soon as the race ended that we might have just seen her last race.  If you weren’t buying that rumor you could most certainly go for the one that guaranteed we had seen Calvin Borel’s last ride aboard her.  Only an hour after the race Jess Jackson emphatically insisted that he had no plans to retire Rachel Alexandra and he had every intention of campaigning her during 2010.  He suggested that her return to form was taking longer than the connections had hoped.  His answer to the question about the jockey issue was more evasive and viewed by most as a “no confidence” vote for Borel.  The daughter of Medaglia d’Oro continues to train, and time will tell if she indeed will return to form.

Summer Bird was injured in training after the Breeders’ Cup and underwent surgery from which he appears fully recovered.  His owners, Kalarikkal and Vilasini Jayaraman, surprised many by removing him from the barn of trainer Tim Ice and moving the horse to Tim Richey who was the successful trainer of Afleet Alex several years ago.  Reports indicate that Summer Bird is approaching the time when he can return to competition.  If he returns healthy and as fit as the horse of late 2009 he will bolster the ranks of the older male division – something that would be good news for the sport.

Leonard Blach is the major owner of Mine That Bird.  His partner Mark Allen is a longtime friend of the horse’s trainer Chip Woolley.   Hobbled by injuries in a motorcycle mishap and getting around on crutches, Woolley added much color to the unlikely story of Mine That Bird.  He is a veteran thoroughbred and Quarter horse trainer based in New Mexico, an outsider to the championship circuit that connects Keeneland to Louisville to New York to California and to the world.  Woolley is not a pretender or a wanna-be.  He is a real cowboy.  Just this week Blach made a badly kept secret known to all by announcing that he was moving his Derby champion from Woolley’s barn  to that of D. Wayne Lukas.  Even though Lukas has roots that intersect with Woolley’s, the pair will not be confused for one another anytime soon.

There is every reason to respect Lukas as one of the most successful trainers of all time.  At the same time, he is not nearly as successful as he once was.  This year, horses in his charge win at a rate much closer to a grade of average rather than exceptional.  Blach chose Lukas’ barn because the two have known each other for a long time dating back to the early days of Hall of Fame trainer’s work in New Mexico.  Clearly it would be hard for a trainer based in New Mexico to prepare a horse for a championship campaign in Kentucky and points eastward.  Moving the horse makes sense, but moving him to the barn he chose does not.  I would like to see the horse win another meaningful race or two, but I really doubt it will happen now.

A couple of years ago I had the pleasure to feed a peppermint to Funny Cide on the backside of Saratoga.  The chance to do so occurred just after Barclay Tagg had decided to abandon the idea of the Derby and Preakness winner’s being his morning mount.  Earlier Funny Cide had reached a point where he was no longer competitive in the class of races befitting his championship status.  It was a bittersweet moment for me, and I fear that Mind That Bird is headed to a similar place, perhaps quite soon.