Seabiscuit Meets Syriana at the Derby

Seabiscuit Meets Syriana at the Derby

 

SouthPaw

 

By Dave Zirin

 

May 3, 2009

 

The Nation

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090518/zirin2?rel=rightsideaccordian

 

Some folks think the Kentucky Derby is one of the

sports world's signature events, where horses are

athletes to be appreciated for their power and beauty.

Others consider the so-called sport of kings

ostentatious nonsense, cruel to the animals and one

more occasion for the super-rich to throw their money

around. And then there are the little people--fewer and

fewer as time goes by--the racetrack touts, the little

old ladies and assorted winners and losers lined up at

the OTB, making $2 bets and hoping to catch a break.

 

Each of those constituencies found something to believe

in at the 2009 Kentucky Derby. This was an underhorse

story of cinematic proportions: one part Syriana and

two parts Seabiscuit, as the unknown gelding Mine That

Bird came out of nowhere to win the Run for the Roses

by eight lengths, overcoming greater odds than any

horse in six decades. Competing against Hall-of-Fame

trainers, the Sultan of Dubai and horses that are

catered to like Texas debutantes, Mine That Bird was

the tough and tiny horse that could.

 

Coming out of the gate, the diminutive gelding was

squeezed by two larger horses and was soon pushed so

far to the the rail that he could barely be seen by the

153,000 in attendance. But jockey Calvin Borel used

that inside track to his advantage, hugging the rail so

closely there were practically sparks between the horse

and the edge as he rode to victory on the soggy track.

 

Before the race, the only press Mine That Bird received

was for his journey to Kentucky, not his prospects. The

horse from Roswell, New Mexico via Canada and Alaska

didn't land on a flying saucer. He came 1,700 miles in

a trailer hitched to the back of trainer Bennie "Chip"

Woolley Jr.'s forty-year-old pickup truck. Woolley, a

former bareback jockey, had driven the horse to the

Derby from New Mexico despite having broken his leg

several weeks earlier in a motorcycle accident.

Wooley's crutches, black cowboy attire and

camera-unfriendly dark glasses stood in stark contrast

to the ostentatiously hatted Derby crowd.

 

And to the media who didn't know what to make of him

before the race, the laconic Woolley broke out a smile

beneath his broad, black Stetson. "They'll know me now,

won't they?"

 

In an unscripted moment as he encountered Borel after

the race, Woolley literally cast his crutches away to

embrace the horse and jockey. "To be honest, I didn't

have any real feeling that I could win the Derby. All I

knew is that we'd be more competitive than anybody

thought we would." In a sport where trainers have egos

that would rival heavyweight-boxing champions, such an

admission is more than remarkable: it's cinematic.

 

Such was the emotion of the race, Borel broke down in

tears after crossing the finish line, recounting the

recent death of his mother. "You got a hole, you got a

shot," Borel said, of the way he skillfully guided Mine

That Bird through the gaps between horses. "I rode him

like a good horse."

 

All of this cinematic drama unspooled against a

backdrop of a recession that saw the lowest attendance

at Churchill Downs since 2004. Purel was flowing as

fast as mint juleps as health officials issued

assurances that swine flu would not impact the race.

 

Just as Seabiscuit thrilled Depression-era crowds in

the 1930s, recession-plagued America now has its own

thoroughbred. But while the humble, injured trainer,

the volatile jockey and the little horse from nowhere

all may all seem to be from central casting, one of the

guys who owns Mine That Bird is more connected to

central booking.

 

Mine That Bird is the property of Mark Allen, who, with

a partner, bought the horse for $400,000. According to

the Anchorage Daily News, Allen bought the horse with

proceeds from the sale of VECO, his father's Alaskan

oil business. His father, Bill Allen, was a central

player in the Sen. Ted Stevens corruption trial and

pleaded guilty in 2007 to bribing Alaska politicians.

Part of his plea agreement was immunity for his son.

Once Bill had Mark in the free and clear, he testified

that the Mind That Bird owner was his personal bagman,

paying off Alaskan legislators.

 

Part of Stevens's 2008 conviction--since voided because

of prosecutorial misconduct--was failure to disclose

gifts given to him by Bill Allen. (Stevens also once

co-owned a piece of another Mark Allen horse, So Long

Birdie.) Yikes. But as long as Mark Allen wasn't riding

Mine That Bird to the payoff spots, the memories of a

remarkable day will probably remain intact.

 

Dave Zirin is The Nation's sports editor. He is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome:

the Pain Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated.com and The Progressive. He is the host of Sirius/XM's Edge of Sports Radio.

 

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