Dr. Leonard Blach

Trainer Chip Woolley announced Saturday afternoon that Mike Smith would ride Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (Grade I) winner Mine That Bird in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby (Grade II) on Aug. 1 and the $1 million Shadwell Travers (Grade I) on Aug. 29.

“Mike Smith has given us a two-race commitment for the West Virginia Derby and the Travers,” Woolley said.

Smith rode Mine That Bird in the Preakness Stakes (Grade I) when Calvin Borel honored a commitment to ride Rachel Alexandra. Mine That Bird, owned by Mark Allen’s Double Eagle Ranch and Dr. Leonard Blach’s Buena Suerte Equine, finished a fast-closing second to Rachel Alexandra on May 16 at Pimlico.

Borel won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird and was in the saddle in the Belmont Stakes (Grade I) in which Mine That Bird ran third in his most recent start on June 6.

However, Borel could not give a commitment for the West Virginia Derby.

Woolley did not get a commitment for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (Grade I) to be run Nov. 7 at Santa Anita.

“Hopefully we won’t be in a switch in the Breeders’ Cup,” Woolley said.

Smith is the regular rider of the undefeated mare Zenyatta, who never has faced males in her 11-for-11 career.

Smith, who was at Churchill Downs on Saturday to ride Thorn Song in the Firecracker Handicap (Grade II), said, “I’m very happy to have the opportunity to get back on him. Hopefully I can make amends for what happened the last time and get him home this time.”

MINE THAT BIRD ‘LOPES’ ONCE AROUND – Double Eagle Ranch and Buena Suerte Equine’s Kentucky Derby 135 winner Mine That Bird back-tracked to the paddock tunnel and then ‘loped’ once around a “fast” Churchill Downs main track Tuesday morning before the renovation break.
    Trainer Bennie “Chip” Woolley Jr. liked what he saw and said Mine That Bird would ‘lope’ around twice on Wednesday.
    “The only reason we are staying here is because he is very comfortable here and training well,” Woolley said. “We will leave Monday or Tuesday, probably Tuesday.  He may jog the morning we leave. I’d like to leave about 9 and get into Pimlico around 7 that evening.”
    The magnitude of pulling off the second-largest mutual shocker ($103.20) still has not sunk in on Woolley.
    “The whole thing is still a whirlwind,” Woolley said. “It is hard to get a grip on it that it really happened. Eventually you’ll get used to the fact that it really did happen.
    “Sunday I was in the paddock getting ready to do an interview and looked up at the sign ‘Kentucky Derby 2009, Mine That Bird’ and I almost started crying. I couldn’t believe it.”
    Winning jockey Calvin Borel, who saw his bid for a Triple Crown end two years ago at Pimlico on Street Sense when he was nipped by Curlin, came by the barn to look in on the Derby winner.
    Woolley was asked what Borel told him after he worked Mine That Bird five furlongs the Monday before the Derby after being on the gelding for the first time.
    “I was looking for 1:01 that morning and he went in 1:02 but he got off a little slow,” Woolley said. “Calvin never moved on him and he said ‘He will finish’ and that gave Calvin the confidence to take back and come driving.”

PAPA CLEM RETURNS TO THE TRACK – Bo Hirsch’s Papa Clem returned to the track at Churchill Downs at 6:15 Tuesday morning for the first time since running fourth in Kentucky Derby 135.
    With exercise rider Mundo Gonzalez aboard, Papa Clem jogged the wrong way around accompanied by a pony. Gonzalez said Papa Clem would gallop in the morning about the same time.
    Trainer Gary Stute is scheduled to return to Louisville this weekend and the colt is scheduled to fly to Baltimore on May 13.

PIONEEROF THE NILE HEADS BACK TO TRACK WEDNESDAY – Zayat Stables’ Pioneerof the Nile is scheduled to return to the track Wednesday morning for the first time since his runner-up finish in Kentucky Derby 135.
    Trainer Bob Baffert is scheduled to return to Louisville on Saturday night. Two of the nine runners he has at Churchill Downs, Mike Pegram’s Mayor Marv and Peachtree Stable’s Mythical Power, will be heading to Texas on Wednesday for Saturday’s $400,000 guaranteed Lone Star Derby (Grade III) at a mile and a sixteenth.

GENERAL QUARTERS REMAINS PREAKNESS POSSIBILITY – Owner/trainer Tom McCarthy walked General Quarters on Tuesday morning and plans to return the 10th-place Kentucky Derby 135 finisher to the track Wednesday morning.
    “The Preakness is a possibility, but I want to see how he gallops and go from there,” McCarthy said. “He is doing so well. I’d like to get him over there (Pimlico) and get a few turns around the track.”
     McCarthy is not sure when he would bring General Quarters to Pimlico if he decides to try the Preakness. A charter flight leaves from Louisville on May 13, but, McCarthy said, “He ships so well, I may van him up.”
    
HULL, MENA TO TEAM UP IN PREAKNEES FOR ROMANS – Heiligbrodt Racing Stable, Team Valor International and Gary Barber’s undefeated Hull galloped Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs.
    Trainer Dale Romans said the undefeated winner of the Grade III Derby Trial on April 25 would work Saturday morning and fly to Baltimore on May 13. Miguel Mena, who was aboard for the Derby Trial win, has the Preakness call.

TERRAIN HEADING FOR TEXAS … OR BALTIMORE – “We’ve got a decision to make,” trainer Al Stall Jr., said Tuesday morning. “The plane for Texas leaves at 7 o’clock in the morning.”
    The decision will be whether Adele Dilschneider’s Terrain goes to Lone Star Park for Saturday’s Lone Star Derby or remains in Stall 7 at Barn 47 at Churchill Downs and trains for the Preakness.
    “We are not 100 percent for the Preakness,” Stall said. “He is at Keeneland and is coming over here this afternoon. If he does not go to Texas, he will work here this weekend and fly to Baltimore next Wednesday.”
    Terrain ran fourth in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (Grade I) at Keeneland on April 11 in his most recent start.
    “We gave him a little time off after the Blue Grass and he has had two works since,” Stall said of Terrain, who worked a half-mile in :50.40 at Keeneland on Sunday. “He has done real well since the Blue Grass.”
    Terrain has run twice this year, opening with a third-place finish in the Louisiana derby (Grade II) on March 14. Fourth in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (Grade I), Terrain closed 2008 with a fifth-place finish in the Grade III Delta Jackpot behind possible Preakness rival Big Drama.

BARN TALK – IEAH Stables, Lewis Lakin and Pegasus Holding Group Stable’s Pure Clan, winner of last year’s Grade III Regret at Churchill Downs and the American Oaks Invitational (Grade I) at Hollywood Park, worked five furlongs on a “fast” main track in 1:00.40, second best of 25 at the distance, under regular morning partner Steve Schmelzel.
    “When we got her back off the farm, she had a stone bruise and that put us about 30 days behind with her,” trainer Bob Holthus said of Pure Clan, a three-time stakes winner at Churchill Downs and third-place finisher in the 2008 Kentucky Oaks (Grade I). “I had been working her on Saturday, but I didn’t want to go on Derby Day.”
    Pure Clan’s return is expected to come in the Early Times Mint Julep (Grade III) at a mile and a sixteenth on the Matt Winn Turf Course.
    “She worked well this morning, but her next work or two will probably be on the grass,” Holthus said.
The only faster work was turned in by three-time graded stakes winner Capt. Candyman Can, owned by Joseph Rauch and David Zell in 1:00.20 for trainer Ian Wilkes.
Robby Albarado joined the 800-win club at Churchill Downs last week, becoming only the sixth rider in track history to reach that milestone. He hit the mark in Thursday’s eighth race when he guided La Mousse (ARG) to victory.
    Calvin Borel, currently third in the rider standings with nine victories, is six wins shy of becoming the fourth rider in Churchill Downs history to reach 900 victories. Victory No. 9, which came aboard Mine That Bird in the Kentucky Derby, gave him 4,729 for his career.
    Jamie Theriot and Julien Leparoux lead the rider standings with 10 victories each.
Trainer Ken McPeek enters Wednesday’s card with 996 career victories, 231 of them at Churchill Downs. McPeek has two horses entered on Wednesday’s card: Biden Our Time in the second and Mimi’s Kids in the sixth.
Nominations close Wednesday for the eighth running of the $100,000 Matt Winn for 3-year-olds going seven furlongs on the main track on May 16. Zayat Stables’ Eaton’s Gift gave trainer Dale Romans his second consecutive Matt Winn victory in the 2008 running.
    Closing Saturday are nominations for the 72nd running of the $100,000 Louisville Handicap (Grade III) for 3-year-olds and up going a mile and a half over the Matt Winn Turf Course and for the sixth running of the $100,000 Winning Colors for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up going six furlongs on the main track. The Louisville Handicap will be run May 23 and the Winning Colors on Memorial Day, May 25.
    Adele Dilschneider and Claiborne Farm’s Lattice won last year’s Louisville Handicap for trainer Al Stall Jr. Graeme Six, trained by Tom Amoss for the ownership of Tom O’Grady, Johns Martin and Team West Side Stables, won the 2008 Winning Colors.
Tracy Farmer’s Commentator, a two-time winner of the Whitney (GI) at Saratoga, worked four furlongs in :47.60 for trainer Nick Zito.  The 8-year-old Distorted Humor gelding is coming off an upset loss in his 2009 debut in the $500,000 Charles Town Classic at West Virginia’s Charles Town Races & Slots.
Chrysalis Stable LLC’s Silverfoot, the 9-year-old three-time winner of the Louisville Handicap (GIII), continued to work toward his 2009 debut with a five-furlong breeze around the dogs on “good” turf in 1:03.40.
Mr. Nightlinger, winner of the 2008 Aegon Turf Sprint (GIII), breezed four furlongs on the grass in :49.40.

KENTUCKY DERBY WINNER MINE THAT BIRD RETURNS TO CHURCHILL DOWNS TRACK – “I have never been to Baltimore, but it looks like I won’t be able to say that in a few days,” Bennie “Chip” Woolley Jr. said Monday morning at Churchill Downs after his Kentucky Derby 135 winner Mine That Bird jogged a mile on a sloppy race track.
    With owners Mark Allen of Double Eagle Ranch and Dr. Leonard Blach of Buena Suerte Equine on hand, Mine That Bird went to the track at 6:40 with exercise rider Charlie Figueroa up.
    “He was just bucking and playing out there,” Figueroa said. “The outriders were surprised to see that yellow (Derby) saddle towel come jogging by.”
    A short time later, the Mine That Bird team informed officials with the Maryland Jockey Club that the 50-1 winner of the Kentucky Derby would compete in the $1 million Preakness (GI), the second jewel of the Triple Crown that will be run at Pimlico on May 16.
    Woolley had said Sunday he wanted to see how Mine That Bird came out of the race before committing to the Preakness and a possible run toward the Triple Crown.
With Allen leading Mine That Bird to the track, Woolley watched the exercise from the viewing stand at the six-furlong chute.
    “Perfect. He tried to buck Charlie off in front of the grandstand and doesn’t normally do that,” Woolley said. “Tomorrow he will back-track to the three-eighths and then ‘lope’ around one time and the next day two times.
    “It will be two rounds a day. I might walk him one day, maybe the day we ship, but he will have no breezes before the Preakness.”
    Woolley said the Triple Crown pursuit factored into the thinking of going on to Pimlico with the gelded son of 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone.
    “The Triple Crown is good for racing, and without the Derby winner (in the Preakness) there is no chance to have one,” Woolley said.
    Mine That Bird gave jockey Calvin Borel his second Kentucky Derby victory and Woolley lauded the popular rider’s effort on Saturday that was the 4,729th win of Borel’s career.
    “Calvin has given two of the greatest rides in Kentucky Derby history,” Woolley said of Saturday’s score and a near-identical run two years previous with Street Sense. “To come from last and go by 18 head, that’s just incredible.”
    Mine That Bird is expected to remain at Churchill Downs until at least May 12.

McCARTHY COULD CONSIDER PREAKNESS BID FOR GENERAL QUARTERS – After being dragged around the shedrow at Barn 37 by General Quarters on Monday morning, owner-trainer Tom McCarthy began to think a bit about a Preakness bid with the 10th-place Kentucky Derby finisher.
    “He came out of the race a lot better than I thought,” McCarthy said. “His legs are cold all the way around, so maybe things aren’t as bad as I thought.”
    McCarthy said he would try to walk General Quarters one more day before returning to the track Wednesday.
    “The way he walked this morning, dragging us around the barn … I’m going to try to give him another day,” McCarthy said. “I will gallop him a few days and see where we are, but I want to get a Pimlico condition book so I can see what all the fees are.”

PREAKNESS HOPEFULS WALK MONDAY AT CHURCHILL DOWNS -- Zayat Stables’ Pioneerof the Nile walked the shedrow at Barn 33 at Churchill Downs for a second morning after his runner-up finish in Kentucky Derby 135.
    Trainer Bob Baffert, who was leaving Louisville later Monday and scheduled to return Saturday night, said Pioneerof the Nile would return to the track Wednesday morning.
    Bo Hirsch’s Papa Clem walked the shedrow at Barn 10A, led by exercise rider Mundo Gonzalez.
    Gonzalez said Papa Clem, the fourth-place finisher in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, would return to the track to jog Tuesday morning. Trainer Gary Stute is scheduled to return to Louisville on Saturday or Sunday from his Southern California base.
Jake Ballis, Rashard Lewis and Reagan Swinbank’s Join in the Dance, who finished seventh after the setting the pace in Kentucky Derby 135, walked for a second straight morning at Churchill Downs.
    “He came out of the race real good and probably will return to the track Wednesday,” said Mike McCarthy, assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher, as the son of Sky Mesa eagerly attacked the grass behind Barn 41.
    Pletcher had indicated Sunday that there “was a chance” Join in the Dance could come back in the Preakness.

HISTORY-MAKING EINSTEIN LOOKS FOR GRADE I ON DIRT IN STEPHEN FOSTER HANDICAP – Two-time Woodford Reserve Turf Classic (GI) winner Einstein was doing well on Monday, tearing aggressively a hay rack and pleasing trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi with his quick recovery from Saturday’s hard-fought victory over Cowboy Cal in Churchill Downs’ top race for older turf horses.
    Einstein edged Cowboy Cal by a head after a stretch-long duel to win by a head and become the first horse to win the 1 1/8-mile turf test for older horses. It marked the fourth consecutive year in which Einstein had competed in the Derby Day race.
    “It took him four years, but that’s all right,” smiled Pitts-Blasi.
    The victory was his second of the year and came on the heels of his biggest career victory in the $1 million Santa Anita Handicap (GI) on March 7, his debut on a synthetic surface in which he turned back nine rivals on the Pro-Ride surface.
    Now a Grade I winner on synthetic and turf surfaces, Pitts is pointing Einstein toward the Grade I, $750,000-added Stephen Foster Handicap on June 13 at Churchill Downs in hopes notching a Grade I win on traditional dirt for the 7-year-old Brazilian-bred son of 1985 Kentucky Derby winner Spend a Buck.  Einstein finished second to two-time “Horse of the Year” Curlin in the 2008 Stephen Foster, then won the Clark Handicap (GII) on the Churchill Downs dirt in late November.
    “I just think if we’re going to try to get a Grade I on the dirt, this is the place to do it,” said Pitts-Blasi.  “He loves this track.  We’ll try it if he’s good.  We want him on top of his game, but we’ll give it a shot.”
    A victory in the Stephen Foster Handicap would allow Einstein to join California-based Lava Man as the only horses to score Grade I stakes victories on dirt, turf and synthetic courses.    

BARN TALK – Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Moss’ champion Zenyatta was scheduled to fly back to her home base at Hollywood Park on Monday. The 2008 Eclipse Award winner as champion older filly or mare was scheduled to make her 2009 debut in Friday’s Louisville Distaff (Grade II), but was scratched by trainer John Shirreffs because of track conditions.
    The Louisville Distaff was won by Domino Stud of Lexington’s Miss Isella, now a winner of four of six starts under the Twin Spires including last fall’s Falls City Handicap (Grade II).
    “Can you write some more races for her here,” trainer Ian Wilkes said with a laugh, adding that the $300,000 Fleur De Lis (Grade II) on June 13 at a mile and an eighth would be the next likely start for Miss Isella.
    Chocolate Candy, fifth-place finisher behind Mine That Bird in Kentucky Derby 135, will leave Tuesday for Belmont Park to begin preparations for the June 6 Belmont Stakes according to Galen May, assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.