Boy Meets Girl, Girl Beats Boy

BALTIMORE -- When it was all over and the fantastic filly Rachel Alexandra did what everyone thought she'd do and won the Preakness, a gaggle of us hemmed in rider Mike Smith of Jockeys' TV show fame, as well as horse racing Hall of Fame fame, and asked him about the winner of the Triple Crown's middle jewel. After all, no other jockey had ever seen the undefeated Miss Alexandra's rear end as close as Smith, who wound up just a length behind at the wire.

---

---

"She's incredible," Smith pronounced of the lady.

Then, he quickly added, "But that lil' dude of mine was coming. Give him that respect."

That lil' dude Smith was aboard was the 50-1 Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird.

The 134th running of the Preakness was about two living beings. One was the lone filly in the race; the other was her jockey, Calvin Borel, who rode Mine That Bird to his stunning win at Churchill Downs.

Horse people usually get these things right. Huge underdogs like Mine That Bird don't often turn into upset winners. Huge favorites like Rachel Alexandra don't often turn into upset losers.

But this time, horse people got half of it wrong, as Smith alluded. As much as Saturday was a validation of Rachel Alexandra's greatness, it was also a vindication of Mine That Bird's talent. He can run no matter his rider, apparently.

If the 2009 Preakness was a true indicator, what we may have before us is a thoroughbred duel of thrilling proportions.

I'm not ready to anoint Rachel Alexandra versus Mine That Bird as the second coming of Affirmed versus Alydar in 1978, which was an Ali versus Frazier, or Bird versus Magic, kind of duel. Rachel Alexandra versus Mine That Bird can't be that good because some dunces in horse racing already blew that opportunity.



Rachel Alexandra's former owners kept her from running in the Derby because of her sex and, therefore, have deprived the niche sport of thoroughbred racing a truly transcendent story. We'll have to settle for a sequel rather than a trilogy like Affirmed and Alydar gave us. Thank goodness Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson wine fame bought her and refused to be so 19th-century obstinate. He deserves a toast with glasses of his 2007 Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay.

Much will be written about Borel saddling up in New York for the Belmont Stakes next month with a chance to become a Triple Crown winning jockey by riding two different horses to victory in horse racing's three most celebrated races. But after witnessing Saturday's race, I'm more interested in seeing a rematch between the filly and the gelding so many figured to be a fluke, Mine That Bird.

As the race week at Pimlico wound down to Saturday's crescendo, the more eyes that saw Mine That Bird judged him to be anything but a one-trick pony. And in a field of horses that wasn't that stout, he was installed early as one of the favorites, a distinction he never garnered in Kentucky. By race time, he held the third best odds on the track at 6-1.

When the gates opened, however, he looked a lot more like the no-shot Derby entrant. He fell into dead last.

But that was also what made him so memorable from the Derby, because he shot through the field from the back to the front. Smith tried to get Mine That Bird to do the same again at Pimlico.

Smith brought his horse from last with a late charge that seemed to come from nowhere, just like Borel did in the Derby. This time, however, Mine That Bird was forced to run seven-wide at the quarter pole before being able to move into contention in the 13-horse field. He pulled up on the outside of Rachel Alexandra as they stretched out to the wire and seemed to be gaining speed as the filly was losing it.

"I had to get into her a little bit," Borel admitted. "The more I asked her, the more she struggled. She'd never been hit before. I knew he [Mine That Bird] was coming. It's going to take a racehorse to beat her."

Had this been the Derby, I'm not so certain Mine That Bird would not have been the racehorse to beat Rachel Alexandra. The Preakness is the shortest of the Triple Crowns. A little more stretch to run and Rachel Alexandra may not have been able to hold off Mine That Bird.

They say that styles make fights, as in a puncher versus a boxer is more exciting that two of the same. The same can be said of horseracing when you have a leader and a stalker. Rachel Alexandra is a front runner. Her wire to wire win on Saturday was emblematic of her style. Mine That Bird is a stalker. He pounces from behind.

"I'm thrilled to death with the race my little horse ran," Mine That Bird's trainer Chip Woolley said. "Everything was going according to Hoyle, until the turn when he was fanned a little wide ... I thought we had a chance at the eighth pole. The Belmont is next for us."

Hopefully, it will be next for Rachel Alexandra, too. If we can't have a traditional Triple Crown threat, we should at least get a virtual duel. I want to see this matchup again.