The 2009 renewal of the ‘Run for the Roses’ featured 19 runners and was run, as usual, over a mile and quarter on dirt at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky on May 2, 2009. Run on going officially described as ‘sloppy’, following overnight rain, the race was memorable for a long-priced winner, a wide winning margin and slightly bizarre television commentary.
The winner was the unheralded Mind That Bird, trained by Bennie ‘Chip’ Woolley Jr. in New Mexico and ridden by Louisian-born Calvin ‘Bo’Rail’ Borel. The son of Birdstone had won his first three starts, all at Woodbine, for David Cotey, but finished last of 12 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita, following his transfer to Richard Mandella and had been beaten on the first two starts of his three-year-old campaign, both at Sunland Park, for Woolley Jr.
Down the back straight, Mind That Bird was, rather dismissively, described by announcer Tom Durkin as ‘well behind the rest of them’. However, on the approach the home turn, apparently unseen by Durkin, Mind That Bird started to make rapid headway from the rear of the field, such that he was in eighth position setting off up the home straight. Switched off, and back onto, the rail to avoid a tiring rival, Mind That Bird actually took the lead with just over a furlong to run but, Durkin, still apparently oblivious to his presence, continued to focus his attention on the better-fancied pair Pioneerof The Nile and Musket Man.
It was only when the eventual winner was three lengths ahead and drawing further clear that Durkin acknowledged, “er, Mind That Bird” in the lead. The winning margin was eventually seven lengths, the widest since 1946, and the winning odds, 51/1, were, at the time, the second-longest in the history of the Kentucky Derby. The aoforementioned Pioneerof The Nile finished second, coming out best in a three-way photograph with Musket Man and Papa Clem.