It Wasn't Just The Public That Ignored Derby Winner

When Mine That Bird won Saturday’s Derby at 50-1 my first thought was: why was he only 50-1? He should’ve been 80 or 90 or 100-1. Nobody knew anything about the horse and nobody really cared. So why only 50-1?

The fault for this lies with racing’s media establishment which had no interest in a horse coming from Canada who’s most recent form showed a fourth place finish in New Mexico’s Sunland Derby.  Because he didn’t run in Kentucky or California or Florida or New York, the racing snobs decided had no chance.

When Mine That Bird’s owners decided to put up the money to enter him in the Derby, the groans could be heard clear across the country. That’s because the ‘Bird’ was taking up a valued starting spot in the Derby—which he earned via his graded stakes earnings in Canada—which some other blue blood horse could have had. He earned them by becoming last year’s two-year-old champion in Canada.

The New York Post’s great racing writer Ray Kerrison is a perfect example. In Sunday’s Post he wrote the when he saw Mine That Bird’s unknown trainer standing alone at the barn last week, he kept right on walking by. Why waste time talking to someone whose horse had no chance, Kerrison reasoned. Good for Kerrison, at least he admits his snobbery.

Every major racing website, from the Daily Racing Form to the famous Kentucky magazine Blood-Horse, offered stories, bios, past performances and videos of races leading up to the Derby. They had videos of contenders’ races going back to last year, but none had any video on the winner. Why bother getting the video of a race from Sunland Park because no horse from New Mexico could ever win the Derby, they must’ve thought. Not when great trainers like Todd Pletcher and Bob Baffert and Bill Mott are gunning for the prize. And not when the Sheik has spent another $10 million buying horses to bring to the race.

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But even without video, Mine That Bird’s last past performance comments give an indication he had a chance. Although fourth in the $900,000 race he was racing four wide, losing tons of ground, and even had the lead near the finish. That kind of performance was a clear signal the horse was improving rapidly, but the Beyer Boys—the ones who hand out speed figures—said that Mine That Bird’s race was at least 10 lengths slower than the true contenders. How could they be so far off? Are their speed figures a joke?

So everyone threw him out. Myself included. I would have loved to have seen video of that race but I couldn’t find it. And when I saw that he was only 50-1, I asked myself, why only 50-1? But then the racing establishment snobbery kicked into my brain. His Beyer figures were too slow, so let’s move on to consider somebody that has a chance.

And in the aftermath one has to ask, is this horse the real thing? Or was he a horse that loved the mud and found a golden rail to whistle to victory on? We’ll find out at the Preakness in two weeks. In the meantime, maybe the Beyer Boys ought to reconsider how they’re rating New Mexico races, and the rest of us should be a little less elitist, too.

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