Mine That Bird Trainer Sitting at My Louisville Hotel Bar

[mbahadur]

I just met Bennie Woolley Jr. at the bar at my hotel. He looks just like John Rich from the country band Big & Rich. Since all of the Derby crowd has left, there were only a few of us there. He only has a couple people traveling with him. I asked him to autograph my copy of the Louisville Courier Journal Derby Chart and also gave him a copy of this special Sunday Courier Journal section which he had not yet seen (Rick Bozich did an article on him on page 4). He seems like a very simple and humble guy. He was discussing quarter horse racing while I was sitting there so I assume he trains a number of quarter horses.

He appears to still be realizing the magnitude of what he has accomplished and excitingly mentioned the $1.4 million dollar winner's purse of the race to his assistant.

Mr. Woolley mentioned that Pimilico Preakness officials had already called him 6 times today about whether he was going on to the Preakness. His assistant mentioned that they will make a decision about the Preakness in the next couple days after they see how the horse is doing. If he goes in the Preakness, Mine That Bird will probably stay at Churchill until a week before the race and then they will van him to Baltimore. There appeared to a woman traveling with them that was fielding media requests -- Mr. Woolley mentioned that he had a large number of requests for tomorrow.

It is truly amazing that there are Hall of Fame trainers that have never won the Derby in a number of attempts and this trainer, not expecting to win, is lucky enough to win the race in his first and probably only try.

[Riot]

My non-horse-racing friends were all excited after this Derby, and thought it wonderful, because an inexpensive horse (they didn't know he was 2-year-old Canadian champion and sold for $400K) owned by average folks won, and paid big. And they LOVED Borel's happiness, and crying, and thanking his mom and dad, and remembered him from Street Sense.

Glad you got to meet Woolley! They can afford a pro van service to Pimlico if they go, I guess

[GenuineRisk]

I read yesterday that seven (I think it was seven) of the last ten derbies were won by trainers running with their first Derby horse. Though, of course, most of them had been training for a long time.

[chucklestheclown]

That is a really good story. No pictures?

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by chucklestheclown

That is a really good story. No pictures?

Wow, we've got that covered don't we? This ain't Mr. Sunshine.

[chucklestheclown]

I guess it is time to read about his interview. I taped NBC and only saw the track feed.

[ALostTexan]

I am really happy that he won it. I didn't realize until after the race that he was from Dalhart, TX, which is about 20 miles from Stratford, TX, where I grew up.

About as local as I am going to get.