8B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KENTUCKY DERBY
MONDAY, MAY 4, 2009
50-1 long shot wears Derby crown
Mine That Bird surprises the crowd and his handlers with a 6 $ _{3/4} $ -length victory
Jockey Calvin Borel smiles as he grabs the halter of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird in the stable area at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., Sunday. Borel came from last to first to win his second Kentucky Derby aboard the colt.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY BETH HARRIS
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Mine That Bird stood regally, his ears pricked, his gaze fixed on the rows of clicking cameras. Then the 50-1 upset winner of the Kentucky Derby put his head down and began munching on grass, leaving his human handlers still in shock about his stunning $6\frac{1}{4}$-length victory a day earlier.
"It's hard to believe we come in here and actually won this thing," bareback rider-turned-trainer Bennie Woolley Jr. said Sunday morning. "Right now it's a little overwhelming."
As proof, Mine That Bird wore a cream blanket with embroidered red roses proclaiming him as the Derby winner.
Whether he moves on to run in the 1 3-16-mile Preakness on May 16 will be decided in the next couple days, Woolley said.
"The Preakness tends to be a little more speed-biased and I don't know that that's going to fit our horse all that well," he said.
If Mine That Bird skips the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, he'll be pointed toward the Belmont Stakes in June. Woolley believes the grueling 1½-mile "Test of the Champion" would suit the gelding, whose father Birdstone won the 2004 Belmont.
The Derby winner hasn't bypassed the Preakness since 1996, when Grindstone was injured between the two races and retired. The Derby winner has followed up by winning the Preakness seven times in the last 12 years.
Mark Allen wants to see the horse he and Leonard Blach purchased for $400,000 before last year's Breeders' Cup run in Baltimore.
"If this horse is doing good, you bet we'll run, but he's going to have to tell us," he said. "The horse will tell us. We don't owe nobody nothing."
Going into the Derby, Woolley, along with cowers Allen and Blach, had the modest goal of finishing sixth or better with the gelding they vanned from New Mexico to compete against some of the sport's priciest horseflesh.
ride by Calvin Borel, Mine That Bird came flying home in the mud
"The horse training was good, but ... you got to be real about it."
"The horse was training good, we knew that." Allen said, "but we were going against guys like D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, so you got to be real about it."
Under an expert rail-hugging
MARK ALLEN
Mine That Bird co-owner
to earn a victory that was worth $1.4 million. Hed never even run in a Grade 1 stakes race before Saturday.
Baffert and Lukas, both Hall of Fame trainers who own a combined seven Derby victories, later offered their congratulations to the self-
described cowboys who came up the same way they did, owning and training quarterhorses.
"Right now he's the winner of the Derby and you can't knock him for that," said Baffert, who admitted he was still in shock after Mine That
Bird rocketed past Pioneerof the Nile.
RILING, BURKHEAD, & NITCHER CHARTERED SERVING LAWRENCE SINCE 1900
prospects, potential rivals were lining up to take him on.
"I figured hed go off at 100-1," Woolley said. "Every playmaker in the Form and everything else said he had the biggest chance to run last of anybody."
Trainer Gary Stute said Papa Clem, who finished fourth in the Derby, will run in the Preakness.
Woolley, Allen and Blach didn't bet on Mine That Bird, whose $103.20 win payout was the second-largest in Derby history.
While Mine That Bird's connections considered his Preakness
"Every playmaker in the Form and everything else said he had the biggest chance to run last of anybody."
"I looked at
the charts this morning and I was only beaten a nose and a head for second," he said. "Baffert's horse (Pioneer of the Nile) came over and bumped me. If it were a normal race there might have been an inquiry. With any luck we could have been second."
BENNIE WOOLLEY JR.
Rider
FOR MORE INFO LOOKUP RILING, BURKHEAD, AND NITCHER CHARTERED ON MARKETPLACE
Other possible starters from the Derby are runner-up Pioneerof the Nile, third-place Musket Man, Join in the Dance (7th), General Quarters (10th) and wagering favorite Friesan Fire, who finished next-to-last.
After fans had a chance to take photos, the garland was removed. The two men then stripped the blanket of its flowers and handed them out to a long line of $ ^ { f } $
Potential new shooters are Delta Jackpot winner Big Drama, Withers winner Mr. Fantasy, Take the Points and Miner's Escape. The Preakness is limited to 14 starters.
After a steady rain gave way to overcast skies, Woolley and Allen made their way to the front gate of Churchill Downs.
They placed the winner's garland of red roses on the recently unveiled statue of Barbaro, the 2006 Derby winner who broke down in the
Preakness and had be euthanized nine months later.
some of whom told Woolley and Allen they had cashed big win tickets on Mine That Bird.
Several people congratulated and thanked the buddies, who first met up in a New Mexico bar 25 years ago.
"I started a fight and he helped me out," Allen said, nodding in Woolley's direction. "We wound up on top, but it took us a while."
They could say the same thing about their road to improbable Derby glory.
BASEBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
Elizabeth Nalewajk/ The Iowa State Daily
Shaeffer Hall, junior pitcher, throws a pitch Friday against the Sooners in Norman Okla, Kansas beat Oklahoma 5-4.
ty hard and I was happy with the way we played."
A familiar problem crept back into Sunday's game. The bottom of the order struggled again,
with the six
through nine
hitters going
a combined
1-for-16.
"We've been getting better contribution from the tail end of our lineup and I think that's the
Oklahoma responded with a six-run first inning it looked as if Oklahoma wouldn't stopped scoring. Price admitted he told his players to be ready to score
"We've been getting better contribution from the tail end of our lineup."
reason we've been putting more runs up" Price said. "Today we weren't as good six through nine."
RITCH PRICE Kansas coach
But the bullpen kept Kansas in the game. After Kansas scored twice in the first inning and
some runs.
"I told the club when they got the six spot it's going to take 12 to win today," Price said. "When we got to nine, I was hoping 9-8 would win it."
Price was able to laugh however before finishing his
thought.
"Just wasn't quite good enough."
Not good enough for the sweep, but two out of three works for Price.
— Edited by Realle Roth
Kansas 203 040 0000 - 9 60
Oklahoma 600 100 2001 - 10-131
BOX SCORE
Kansas AB R H RBI
Narodowski ss 2 3 1 0
Price 2b 3 1 0 0
Heere rf 4 2 1 0
Afenir c 4 1 1 2
Thompson 3b 5 2 2 6
Lytle lf 5 2 2 6
Land 1b 3 0 0 0
Waters dh 4 0 0 0
Brunansky cf 4 0 1 0
Totals 34 9 6 8
Oklahoma AB R H RBI
Johnson cf 4 2 2 1
Harughty 2b 5 1 2 2
Hernandez ss 5 2 2 1
Wise dh 5 1 1 0
Buechele 3b 5 1 2 2
Baker 1b 5 0 1 0
Ogle c 4 2 1 2
Ellison lf 2 1 0 0
Johnson lf 2 0 1 1
Herren rf 4 0 1 1
Totals 41 10 13 10
E-Oklahoma: Hernandez (17).
2B-Oklahoma: Johnson (8).
HR-Oklahoma: Harughty (8) Kansas: Thompson 2(14).
Pitcher's Kansas IP H R ER BB SO
Ridenhour 0.2 5 6 6 1 1
Bollman 6.0 6 3 3 0 2
Murray L (2-2) 2.2 2 1 1 0 3
Oklahoma IP H R ER BB SO
Porlier 0.1 2 2 2 0 0
Robinson 4.0 2 6 5 3 3
Hubbard 0.0 1 1 1 0 0
Rocha 2.2 1 0 0 1 0
Duke W (3-1) 3.0 0 0 0 1 2
T-3:14 A-583
BASEBALL Farst ties own career high as Nebraska loses
LINCOLN, Neb. — Tyler Farrsted his career high with four hits, but Nebraska wasn't able to overcome Missouri on Sunday, losing 12-9.
Farst went 4-for-5, picking up his second four-hit game of the season, as the Cornhuskers (21-26-1, 5-19 Big 12) outchief the Tigers 15-10. But a trio of errors led to four unearned runs for Missouri (28-21, 14-10 Big 12).
Associated Press
---
.
---
G