TRAINER CHIP WOOLLEY HAPPY WITH MINE THAT BIRD’S RECENT ALBUQUERQUE WORK
By Michael Cusortelli
September 18, 2009 – Bennie L. “Chip” Woolley Jr., the trainer of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mine That Bird, said the 3-year-old gelding came out of his September 14 workout at The Downs at Albuquerque in good shape.
Mine That Bird worked 4 furlongs in :47-2/5 between the first and second races at the Albuquerque track. The drill was the fastest of 15 at the distance that day.
“I was happy with the work, but it was actually a little faster than what I was looking for,” Woolley said on Friday. “This is the first time he’s ever worked on a track as fast as Albuquerque. The tracks back east are a lot deeper and sandier, and those are the types of tracks he’d been used to working on.”
A gelding by Grade 1 winner Birdstone racing for Mark Allen’s Double Eagle Ranch and Dr. Leonard Blach’s Buena Suerte Ranch at Roswell, New Mexico, Mine That Bird has earned $2,196,581 from five wins in 12 starts. He hasn’t raced since August 1, when he ran third in the Grade 3, $750,000 West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park.
Mine That Bird is expected to make his next start in the $500,000 Goodwood Stakes (G1) at Santa Anita Park on October 10. The 1 1/8-mile race will mark his first race against older horses, and because it is the last major West Coast prep for the 1-1/4 mile, $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), it is expected to draw its strongest field in several years.
The Breeders’ Cup Classic, North America’s richest horse race, will be run at Santa Anita on November 7.
“I’m not concerned about the layoff going into the Goodwood – the main thing is to get him ready for the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Woolley said. “We know he can run 1-1/8 miles. He’s not a horse you have to train that hard to be fit to run that distance. His race is always the last 3/8 of a mile, and he hasn’t missed a work since the West Virginia Derby.”
Woolley also said that Mine That Bird would likely stay at The Downs at Albuquerque and ship to California sometime next week.
“But that schedule is not set in stone,” the trainer added.
During his stay in New Mexico, Mine That Bird led the post parade for the $2-million All American Futurity (G1) for Quarter Horses at Ruidoso Downs on Labor Day. He also was the star of an open house three days later at Double Eagle Ranch.