Despite reports that stated he could miss the second leg of the Triple Crown, 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird will run in the 134th running of the Preakness Stakes on May 16.
Trainer Chip Woolley had wavered because the mile-and-three-sixteenths Preakness at Pimlico racecourse on May 16 is the shortest of the Triple Crown races and Mine That Bird performs better at longer distances.
“You cannot have a Triple Crown winner without having the Derby winner in the Preakness,” Woolley told the Pimlico racecourse website (www.pimlico.com).
“That played into our decision but the horse looks super. I have never been to Baltimore, but it looks like I won’t be able to say that in a few days.”
Kentucky-bred Mine that Bird, a 50-1 longshot ridden by Calvin Borel, won the Derby Saturday by 6 3/4 lengths, one of the biggest upsets in America’s most celebrated race.
The sport of horse racing would have taken a huge hit had Woolley pulled Mine That Bird from the Preakness Stakes – especially considering how much of a long shot winner Mine That Bird was at the Kentucky Derby.
The Triple Crown is such a rare feat in sports and just like Big Brown last year, it’s fun to get behind a horse that’s in the running for it. Hopefully Woolley doesn’t pull an about-face and pull Mine That Bird leading up to the Preakness.
