Mine That Bird entered on Turf

[xfile]

2009 Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird entered in Sunday's Firecracker Handicap on turf; lands post 2 in overflow field.

[Spendabuck85]

Some excerpts from DRF.com
Thursday morning, Lukas said he was skipping the Firecracker and would train Mine That Bird up to the Aug. 7 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga "if I have to," while also keeping an eye out for a suitable prep. Lukas initially had sought to run Mine That Bird in a Saturday allowance at Churchill Downs, but the race did not fill.

We're not trying to develop a turf horse, we're trying to develop a handicap horse," said Lukas. "This is only a means to an end. He wouldn't necessarily have to win, but just get a good effort out of this to move forward. I'm going to let the owners make the final call on whether we run or not. He's dead-ready to run, I know that."

http://www.drf.com/news/article/114352.html

[46zilzal]

I can recall Lukas having only Two anywhere at all on the green, Steinlen he inherited and Scrimshaw was so so.

[Spalding No!]

I can recall Lukas having only Two anywhere at all on the green, Steinlen he inherited and Scrimshaw was so so.
I think you mean Orientate, not Scrimshaw.

Lukas also trained Star Of Cozzene early in that horse's career, which included a 3rd place finish in the '91 BC Mile.

Marlin was another.

[wisconsin]

Some horses do toughen up after a turf race. It's just a prep anyhow......

[Java Gold@TFT]

For someone trying to "develop" a handicap horse the Whitney seems a pretty ambitious place to start with QR already pointed toward that one. Maybe if Quality Road gets 128 and MTB gets 110 it could be a fair race. Otherwise it's just the old DWL sniffing at someplace where he is overmatched. If Blame was to show up you could name the zip code that MTB would be in when the winner crosses the finish line.

[Hanover1]

Smoke and mirrors at this point..... A work via a race on dirt would seem to serve just as well if "he doesn't have to win..." Built in excuse if he loses, and self serving grace if MTB draws away on the weeds. I would have opted for the allowance as well, but to select weeds is amusing. Hope he wins by 10, however my money is elsewhere.......

[letswastemoney]

If Pro-Ride is supposed to play like turf...and Mine That Bird cannot hit the board on Pro-Ride......is he really going to like turf?

He could. I wouldn't completely say he has no shot, because it's a weak field.

He could also hang like he did in the Goodwood.

[OntheRail]

I have not looked at the card yet... but he did run well at WO but he also was closer to the pace or on the lead. So it will depend how DWL tells Calvin to ride him. Now we all know CW told him to take him back and wait and I think that took the fight out of him mentally and he got frustrated and was not having fun. So hard to say how he'll run. Could be huge if they let him... he sure looks very good in the photo's. ;)

[letswastemoney]

I have not looked at the card yet... but he did run well at WO but he also was closer to the pace or on the lead. So it will depend how DWL tells Calvin to ride him. Now we all know CW told him to take him back and wait and I think that took the fight out of him mentally and he got frustrated and was not having fun. So hard to say how he'll run. Could be huge if they let him... he sure looks very good in the photo's. ;)
There was not much in those Woodbine fields...at least in my opinion.

[Dahoss9698]

Wagering wise, Mine That Bird seems like a great play against in the Firecracker. He's a Derby winner returning to Churchill. Borel is riding and it's a holiday, so there will probably be some dumb money on him in the pools. For those reasons alone he'll be at least half of what he should actually be. Couple that with first time on a new surface, for a race he wasn't pointing to.

I'm going to take a shot with Public Speaker.