The "thankful" things in 2009 - part I

Even though Thanksgiving was a week ago, we have things to be thankful for as a thoroughbred racing fan and there have been plenty this past year. The sport has been very fortunate to be full with exciting new people we got to meet for the first time, superstar horses that only come along once in a lifetime and fine wonderful things right here in our area that make playing the ponies so much fun and profitable!

This year’s Triple Crown trail saw two new faces enter the picture of our sport. For years; the well known, established trainers ruled the “big” races and the Triple Crown trail. This year there were two new men that stepped forward into the spotlight with their horses gaining victory in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. They were young fresh faces that never were really heard of until they found the winners circle on racing’s biggest stage.

When 50-1 longshot, Mine That Bird came roaring up the rail to win this year’s Kentucky Derby and it was the first time we met the guy with the cowboy hat and crutches. Bennie “Chip” Wooley Jr. went from a little known thoroughbred trainer from New Mexico to national prominence. He’s been around the racing game for nearly 20 years, but it took an unlikely horse to put in at the top of the game. A gelding that was last in the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile the year before and got into the Kentucky Derby on just earnings. He won the “Run for the Roses” was a gallant 2nd in the Preakness Stakes and rounded the final leg of the Triple Crown with a 3rd in the Belmont Stakes. He'll be known with the trademark cowboy hat, pictured on crutches throughout the entire series of races and the long van trips across country to various racing venues which made "Chip" Wooley a very noticeable household name.

Another young new face to racing’s biggest stage appeared late on the Triple Crown trail in Arkansas with a horse named; Summer Bird. Lightly raced; Summer Bird didn’t make much of an impact in the Kentucky Derby, but his trainer Tim Ice had bigger plans for him. New to the sport, Summer Bird was Tim Ice’s first “big” horse. After skipping the Preakness to point for the Belmont Stakes, Tim Ice had made the right decision and on his 35th birthday was rewarded with a Belmont Stakes victory. Summer Bird would then run behind Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Stakes at Monmouth in the slop, but regroup and point for the Mid-Summer’s Derby; The Travers Stakes. It was there that he would get his second grade I victory and go to the top of the three year old colts division. He stayed in New York to prep for the Breeder’s Cup and it was there that he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup and became the first horse since the great Easy Goer to win the Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup as a three year old, all in the same year. While the horse was doing this on the track, Tim and his wife had their first child. Summer Bird ventured to the west coast for the Breeder’s Cup Classic and was a respectable 3rd in the race on the “pro-ride” surface, finishing the best of the east coast “real” dirt runners. With the success of Summer Bird, Tim Ice has decided to relocated to the east coast and expand his stable with more horses and new owners for the upcoming year.

These are just two of the “thankful” things we had in thoroughbred racing in 2009 and the next few weeks, I’ll be reminding us more on others like; two superstar fillies that unfortunately came along in the same year and great things right here at home for the racing fan & wager during the summer months and year round.