Did you hear about the Kentucky Derby winner? It was won by a Canadian-bred horse (Mine that Bird) that looked like it had no chance at all. I was at Toronto's Woodbine Raceway and before the race, I remarked to the guy beside me that if I could bet for a horse to finish last, that would be my pick. Not only did he win--he went from almost last to first in the slop and finished about seven lengths ahead of the second-place horse. He went off at 50-1. Days before, the horse was racing at a "B" track in New Mexico where he couldn't even beat those nags. I thought for sure that shortly after the race, it would be announced that he was disqualified for being juiced.
If you look at the video, he made champion horses look like they were standing still.The horse was bought (I think as a yearling) by Woodbine trainer David Cotey for (are you ready for this?) $9,500. Compare this to the $million+ paid for other Derby contenders. The horse won three stake races as a two-year-old at Woodbine and was named top two-year-old in the country. Cotey sold the animal for about $450,000 to Americans. He raced only twice before the Derby as a three-year-old at Sunland Park in New Mexico, finishing second and fourth. The connections were dreaming in technicolour when they decided to enter him in the Derby. The new trainer hauled the horse with his pickup truck for 21 hours to Churchill Downs. If you ask me, the race was an unrepeatable miracle.
Let's see what he does in the Preakness and or Belmont. Here's the video. You can hear the announcer say during the backstretch run that Mine that Bird is well back from the rest of them. As the field nears the final turn, watch for a horse coming through along the rail...
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