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Every year following the first Saturday in May, a standard question about the latest Derby winner is: Can he handle the distance in the Belmont?  It's always assumed -- or at least it has been for maybe a couple of decades now -- that the Derby winner will be comfortable with the Preakness Stakes (gr. I) course.  After all, ...

The Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) was taken in devasting style by Rachel Alexandra, who romped by 20 1/4 lengths. Like Mine That Bird, she is from the first crop of her sire -- in her case, Medaglia d'Oro (TrueNicks,SRO) .  (With Tapit (TrueNicks,SRO) , Speightstown (TrueNicks,SRO) , Candy Ride (ARG) (TrueNicks,SRO) , and Even the Score ...

Squeezed back as the field left the stalls and way off the pace early on, Mine That Bird -- under a rail-skimming ride from Calvin Borel -- ran past a rubber-legged field in the stretch to take a muddy renewal of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) by 6 3/4 lengths. The $9,500 yearling -- the least expensive in the race -- ...

.commentForm, .postComments, #comments{display:none;} Brought to you by: OCD Pellets Calvin Borel, the hard-working and unassuming jockey who won his second Kentucky Derby aboard 50-1 longshot Mine That Bird, will be the guest on BloodHorse.com’s Talkin’ Horses podcast this Thursday, May 7.A 42-year-old Louisiana native whose brother, ...

  Should it really be a surprise that Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I)?Mine That Bird's Grandsire, Grindstone, won the 1996 Kentucky Derby. Mine That Bird raced in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, and his connections mentioned some good points in their post Kentucky Derby press conference. The connections ...

Isn't it ironic? The sale Fasig-Tipton officials thought about ending - the Kentucky fall yearling auction - has been the source of the two most recent Kentucky Derby winners. Mine That Bird and Big Brown both were sold there.   Does that mean we should all go looking there for a Derby horse? Probably not. But this development does show ...

Last week we discussed the fallibility of the Dosage ''rule'' for the Kentucky Derby.  (Derby winners are supposed to have enough stamina influences to rate 4.00 or lower on the Dosage scale.) I predicted the rule would have to change because today's North American Thoroughbred is being bred for speed (high Dosage Index) and eventually Derby ...

''Mine That Bird is last; no surprise there,'' I said to my colleague Esther Marr as we watched the horses pass us for the first time while standing trackside for Derby 135. Why do they even let half of these horses in the field, I said to myself for a split second before continuing to watch the field round the turn. Less than two minutes later I ...

Calvin Borel's unbridled joy as he paraded his 50-1 shot Mine That Bird toward the winner's circle at Churchill Downs today is the elixir that could help revive horse racing. You didn't have to wager a dime on this horse to fully share in the moment. I was also thrilled to see a son of classic winner Birdstone ...

To start, this is as tough a Derby as I have ever had to decipher, with a case to be made for at least dozen of the horses. I will break the race down in several categories and then put it all together and come up with something that resembles a wagering strategy. Read the full column here..