Mine That Bird possible for Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile

By: SPORTS NETWORK

 

Louisville, KY (Sports Network) - 2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is being readied for a possible start in this year's $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Churchill Downs. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas indicated as much on Wednesday.

"I don't think he will get in," Lukas said from Churchill Downs, "but he has done very well since he got back here from Saratoga."

Lukas, winner of 18 Breeders' Cup races, also said that Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith would be reunited with Mine That Bird for the race. Smith rode the gelding last year in the Preakness Stakes and West Virginia Derby.

Owned by Mark Allen and Dr, Leonard Blach, Mine That Bird has not won since his surprise victory in last year's Run for the Roses as a 50-1 longshot. The gelding was ninth in last year's Breeders' Cup Classic to Zenyatta.

This year the four-year-old was eighth in the Firecracker Handicap at Churchill Downs, fifth in the Whitney and seventh in the Woodward Handicap, both at Saratoga.

If Mine That Bird should not be able to start in the Dirt Mile on November 6, Lukas said that the gelding could start instead in the $100,000 Ack Ack Handicap at Churchill Downs one day earlier.

In other Breeders' Cup news, two-time Pacific Classic winner Richard's Kid will not start in the $5 million Classic. Trainer Bob Baffert was told on Tuesday that the five-year-old will be returned to Dubai by his owner Zabeel Racing.

Richard's Kid was sixth in the 2009 Classic and this year was seventh in the $10 million Dubai World Cup. He has won nine of 27 career starts for $1,716,370.