Borel looking forward to Breeders' Cup

Last updated: 11/4/09 7:21 PM

Mine That Bird galloped on Wednesday for
Woolley (Lauren Pomeroy/Horsephotos.com)

Kentucky Derby (G1) MINE THAT BIRD (Birdstone) landed in the No. 1 post
position for Saturday’s $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Santa Anita
when the 14-race Breeders’ Cup card was drawn Tuesday.

“I love it,” jockey Calvin Borel said with a big grin Wednesday morning
during the renovation break at Churchill Downs.

Borel gave Mine That Bird a rail-skimming ride in the Derby to post a 50-1
upset and earn his second Kentucky Derby victory. The rider, who turns 43 on
Saturday, is hoping Mine That Bird gives him a second Breeders’ Cup victory.

“I have seen him training in the mornings and he looks like he is going just
like he was before the Derby, maybe more so than in any race since the Derby,”
Borel said.

Borel added that he has talked with trainer Chip Woolley since Mine That
Bird’s sixth-place finish in the Goodwood (G1) at Santa Anita on October 10.

“He told me he has been training good,” Borel said. “His last race was not
that bad. He gets an extra eighth of a mile this time and he needed that last
race since it was his first start in two months.”

Borel has one other mount on Saturday — dual Grade 1-placed READY’S ECHO
(More Than Ready) for trainer Todd Pletcher in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).

“He’s a nice little horse,” Borel said of Ready’s Echo, who drew post
position 10. “I rode him one time at Saratoga and he ran good (finishing third
in the seven-furlong Forego [G1]). He might have won with a little luck because
he got in a little trouble.”