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.