Mine that Bird goes from oddball to champion

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — They weren’t supposed to be here among the big shots and the sheik, the Hall of Famers and the million dollar sure-things.

Not the tiny horse with the funky feet and unsightly gait. Not the cowboy trainer with the black hat, busted leg and horseshoe mustache to match. Not the owner who met the trainer in a bar fight and got immunity in a federal corruption case through his father’s plea deal.

Yet here they are, this unlikely crew on the journey of their lives, propelled by a spectacular run at the Kentucky Derby that took 50-1 long shot Mine That Bird from obscurity to champion for the ages. Next stop: the Preakness Stakes.

The avalanche of attention since the unheralded bay gelding’s stunning and emphatic win has been a little bit much for rough-around-the-edges trainer Bennie Woolley Jr. The former bareback rider spent the last 25 years grinding out a modestly successful racing operation at tracks scattered throughout the Southwest.

“It’s hard for me to be in front of the cameras,” he said. “It’s not something I really set out to do. I love being at the barn and doing my thing. The press side is just a little tough.”

He better get used to it.

Woolley’s post-Derby daze has consisted of a seemingly endless string of interviews, autograph requests, phone calls and well-wishers coming by Barn 42 at Churchill Downs — from Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert to the exercise riders, stall muckers and gate attendants.

Gratifying? Sure. Expected? Not exactly.

“It’s a tough game,” Woolley said. “I never thought I’d get here. You lose 80 percent of the time.”

Woolley would know. The Derby was just his second victory of the year, a lengthy drought but hardly the lean times he endured two decades ago while trying to make a name for himself in training, after a series of injuries ended his rodeo career.

“I went broke more than once,” he said. “That’s a story that’s not unfamiliar with most other trainers. I done plenty of other things to pay bills. You do what it takes to survive.”

That work ethic helped Woolley — nicknamed “Shifty” for reasons he laughingly can’t recall — establish himself as one of New Mexico’s most prominent horsemen.

A thrill seeker with a taste for fast cars and hunting, it’s hardly a surprise Woolley began his friendship with Mine That Bird owner Mark Allen during a bar fight 25 years ago.

“Mark was the one who started it,” Woolley said with a laugh. “That was his doing. It was tempting to let them whoop up on him. But at the same time I couldn’t let a fellow cowboy take a beating. So I got up and went in to help.”

They won, eventually.

“It took us awhile,” Allen said. “We paid the next day. I wasn’t sure we were going to make it.”

It’s been the same with horses.

Allen sent Woolley to Canada to get a look at Mine That Bird, who won the Sovereign Award as Canada’s top 2-year-old. The son of 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone carried a $400,000 price tag.

It wasn’t cheap, but it was a chance for an owner and a trainer who never ventured anywhere near the Kentucky Derby Trail.

At first glance, Woolley wasn’t sure the horse was worth it.

Mine That Bird was small, not even 16 hands high. Even worse, his feet pointed out at 45 degree angles, making him run like a car out of alignment.

Woolley spent a couple days watching the horse train. Despite his troubling gait, Mine That Bird seemed to get over the ground easy. Plus, there was a hint of speed Woolley knew he could work with.Mine That Bird proved it during the Derby, surging past the entire field in the last half-mile to win by 63‚Ñ4 lengths, the widest margin in more than 60 years.

Baffert, who finished second in the Derby with Pioneerof the Nile, admits he’s still shocked by the move Mine That Bird put together along the rail under jockey Calvin Borel.