LOUISVILLE, (Reuters) – Former Kentucky Derby champion Mine That Bird has lost his mental edge and will be a long shot to enter the winner’s circle in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile on Saturday, trainer D. Wayne Lukas conceded yesterday.
The rise and fall of the 2009 Derby winner has Lukas “just hoping for the best” from the once-prized gelding.
“I’m realistic about it,” Lukas told Reuters yesterday at his barn along the Churchill Downs back stretch. “I don’t have any grandiose ideas that he’s going to just blow them away.”
Mine That Bird has not blown anyone away since shocking the racing world last May with a daring, rail-skimming ride to win the Run for the Roses as a 50-1 outsider.
The diminutive Kentucky-bred horse has not won since that stunning victory at Churchill Downs though he did finish second in the Preakness and third in the Belmont Stakes. Lukas took the reins of Mine That Bird earlier this year after his regular trainer, Chip Woolley, could not get the gelding to recapture the magic from the Triple Crown series. “Mine That Bird is physically as good as I could possibly make him,” said Lukas, a Hall of Fame trainer. “He looks better. His weight is excellent. But mentally?
“I don’t know if it was the hard campaign last year or being a gelding but mentally he’s just not into it.”
NOBLE EXPERIMENT
Mine That Bird has raced eight times since last tasting victory and Lukas shrugged when asked if he thought Churchill Downs might provide the stage for a return to glory.
“I’ve tried to sharpen him for this but this will be a noble experiment,” Lukas said with a laugh.
The trainer said the odds were long that the horse would ever recapture the form he displayed during that spellbinding five-week span of the 2009 Derby, Preakness and Belmont.
“Just like any athlete, whether it’s the NBA or the NFL or any of those leagues, when those players get stale or go over the top, it’s hard to get them back.
“It’s the same thing with a horse. I’ve been really working hard to get him mentally into it. He’s sharp, he plays out there and has fun, but when you really want him to lay it down and work hard, he doesn’t have that killer finish.
Mine That Bird is an early 20-1 better choice in the field of 13.
Lukas said the “history books are full of horses that won the Derby and haven’t come back to have good careers.”
“Giacomo, Super Saver, Mine That Bird, Smarty Jones — you can go right down the line,” he said.
