Kentucky Derby Winner Mine That Bird to Parade at SunRay Park Saturday

2009 Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird, will parade before a home-state crowd this Saturday and Sunday at Sun Ray Park and Casino in Farmington, New Mexico.

The plain bay gelding pulled off a shocker at 50-1 with jockey Calvin Borel in 2009, the longest shot in the field that included Pioneerof The Nile, who would go on to sire Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah. Owned by New Mexico residents Leonard Blach and Mark Allen, and trained by the cowboy-hatted Chip Woolley, Mine That Bird was an instant fan favorite. He would take his Derby-winning form to the Preakness, where he ran second to Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, and to a third-place finish behind Champion 3-Year-Old Male, Summer Bird, the the Belmont Stakes.

"We're planning to have him in the post parade for a couple of races each day," said Steve Fedunak, the simulcast director at SunRay. "I don't know if we've ever had a Kentucky Derby winner step foot on our track. And I think we might try, if we can and he's up to it, not that he's ill or anything, but I don't know what his temperament is, we'd love to have him in the paddock a little bit to let people get a little closer to him than looking down at the track."

Since his retirement in 2010, Mine That Bird has been seen on the trail in Colorado with owner Allen, as the "Horse in Residence" at the Kentucky Derby Museum, and also on a cross-country media tour in 2014 to promote the movie based on his incredible Derby win, 50-1. 

Source: Farmington Daily Times