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Originally Posted by mbahadur
Chip Woolley is staying at the hotel next door to mine in Louisville and comes into the bar of my hotel on a regular basis.
I was drinking with a co-worker of mine after playing tennis tonight and got to talk to Mr. Woolley a little bit. He is very approachable and winning the Kentucky Derby has not changed him.
Mine That Bird will probably work on Monday. The decision to name a jockey on Monday for the Belmont may be tied into whether Calvin Borel or this other jockey works the horse on Monday morning. Calvin Borel comes by every day at Churchill to visit the horse and is clearly the first choice. If Calvin does not get the mount, it appears that Garrett Gomez and Rafael Bejarano are at the top of Woolley's list. Woolley did mention that Gomez's more aggressive style may not fit the horse as well (I do remember his poor ride on Hard Spun in the Belmont a few years ago). Woolley spoke very highly of both Gomez and Bejarano. I mentioned Julian Leparoux as being a very hot rider right now and he said he also was on his list but did not rank as high as Gomez and Bejarano. Julian Leparoux's very attractive girlfriend did come up in the conversation (does anyone know who Julian Leparoux is dating?)
The one horse that Woolley appeared to be most worried about running in the Belmont was Charitable Man. I asked him if he was worried about the pace scenario in the Belmont and he thought that there would be enough pace entered in the race. If not, Mine That Bird would just lay closer to the front than normal. He cleary mentions that Mine That Bird's significant improvement is related to his decision to start taking Mine That Bird further off the pace in his races and he wishes that he could have changed his running style sooner. If he does well at Belmont, it appears that the connections would likely point to the Travers at Saratoga.
I mentioned that Mine That Bird was probably the leading candidate right now for the 3-year old colt Eclipse award and I could tell that Woolley had not even thought about that.
Chip Woolley is a very likeable and humble guy and the success that he and the horse are having right now are very good for the sport.
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That is awesome. But I just read an article on espn that said they were giving bo-rail a Monday deadline to shitorgetoffthepot. Sounded pretty clear, if you see him again will you ask if this deadline is true? Because Jackson is not going to decide on RA til mid-week at best.