Julien Leparoux ... no, Mike Smith! ... to be aboard Mine That Bird in West Virginia Derby and Travers

It seems that nothing's ever simple or straightforward when dealing with Mine That Bird and his connections.

I check my e-mail pretty religiously, at least on weekends and when there are horses to discuss. I saw a tip from a message board friend that the Blood-Horse was reporting that jockey Julien Leparoux had committed to ride the Kentucky Derby winner in the upcoming West Virginia Derby-G2, Aug. 1 at Mountaineer Park.

I clicked the link to read the story, and the page at bloodhorse.com was empty.

I clicked the Blood-Horse logo to head back to the homepage and saw no page-topping story link to coverage of who is riding Mine That Bird now that owner Mark Allen and trainer Bennie Woolley Jr. have de-seated the man who won them the Kentucky Derby and beat them in the Preakness, Calvin Borel. But a quick search of the page found a smaller-type link for the story "Smith to Ride Mine That Bird in Two Stakes."

So the news is: Mike Smith, who rode Mine That Bird to a closing second behind Borel and Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness Stakes and then gave up the mount to ride for regular clients Jerry and Ann Moss on the west coast and skip the Belmont Stakes, is back in the irons for the West Virginia Derby and the Travers S.-G1, at Saratoga. ... But apparently that news came after an only-temporarily-correct story had broken that Leparoux would ride the 'Bird in West Virginia.

Or something.

Turns out the report about Leparoux was right until his agent "realized he had a prior commitment." ... The sort of commitment that apparently keeps him from riding a short-priced favorite in a $750,000 race.

This can't be the resolution that Allen and Woolley were hoping to achieve. Unseating Borel might have been the right move for them, because if Rachel Alexandra ends up in the Travers, too (or in the Jim Dandy-G2 on West Va. Derby Day) they were going to lose him, anyway.

But to go back to a jock who asked-off their horse prior to a Grade 1 ... and a jockey who will have to travel from California to ride their horse in these two eastern races ... and thus probably won't be working him in the interim ... and who didn't even commit beyond the end of August ... that can't be what Mine That Bird's principals were looking for.

I know they're New Mexico connections who are likely to blow away like tumbleweeds from the national racing landscape when this horse is gone. But he isn't looking like he'll be gone anytime soon.

Not only was Mine That Bird a convincing Derby winner in the slop, but he came back and scored a gutsy runner-up finish in the Preakness and a credible third in the Belmont Stakes without getting a good trip in either race. He's won over synthetic surfaces at Woodbine in earning a Canadian 2-year-old championship, and shouldn't chicken out of the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita like the connections of some horses. (You heard me, Jess Jackson and Rachel.)

And he's a 3-year-old gelding. He might race in good company until he's 6, or 7, or 8.

Not to mention, though they're being passed off as hayseeds who crashed the party -- c'mon, NTRA, you're telling me that in two months nobody can get around to writing a frickin' bio for these two guys for your Web site? -- Mark Allen reportedly has the better part of $30 million to play with from the sale of his family's oil field services company. If he hires a good bloodstock agent, he'll keep himself in competitive horses for as long as he cares to stay there.

Will nobody commit to this horse through the Breeders' Cup? ... Nobody?

To me it seems we have a Catch-22: Mine That Bird appears to be a very good horse with obscure connections, and those connections realize they have a horse worthy of one of the best jockeys in the country and aren't willing to settle for less.

It's possible that Mike Smith won't be faced with having to take off Mine That Bird before the Breeders' Cup on the first weekend November, but then again, he might. It's reasonable to believe the Travers on Aug. 29 won't be Mine That Bird's last race before a Nov. 7 trip to Santa Anita for the Breeders' Cup Classic. That's a lot of days between.

Could be he fits in the Super Derby-G2 on Sept. 19 at Louisiana Downs. Or is sent out against older horses for the first time in the Jockey Club Gold Cup-G1 on Oct. 3 at Belmont. Or wants to clobber other 3-year-olds in the Indiana Derby-G2 at Hoosier Park on Oct. 3.

Any of those, and maybe others not on the cusp of my brain, set up as a potential last race for Mine That Bird before the Breeders' Cup in November. And nobody is committed to ride him in September or October. Or November.

Allen and Woolley probably should've swallowed their pride and stepped down just one peg on the jockey ladder to find someone with ability -- a younger guy, an overlooked guy, or not a guy at all -- who would be thrilled to have a horse the caliber of Mine That Bird, and who would have to be dragged off him with a cowboy's lasso (which Woolley could probably accomplish) rather than be asking off him the next time they have a good horse running anywhere else.

And that's actually a decent list of people.

For me, it starts with Chantal Sutherland, who piloted Mine That Bird to his Canadian championship. She rode him to a dull finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, but who knows how "off" the horse was after a long ship from Woodbine to Santa Anita last fall? Allen's Double Eagle Ranch and partner Buena Suerte Equine had only owned him a couple of weeks at the time. Sutherland is presently 34th in earnings among all North American riders according to Equibase.com, winning at a fair 14 percent clip and hitting the board with 43 percent of her mounts. And she might be a good public relations move -- hiring the horse's capable former jockey, a spokesmodel-pretty and well-spoken woman, to boot, to try and guide him to a Breeders' Cup win that eluded them both last year.

Of course, maybe one ride last fall for these connections was enough for Chantal; only she could say.

There are plenty of other names worth tossing into the discussion, though I'll admit to not knowing all the commitments for them that might conflict.

Rajiv Maragh is No. 10 on the 2009 jockey earnings list and second in wins at the present Belmont meet. Mike Luzzi and one of my favorites, Richard Migliore, are capable old hands at Saratgoa who could stand to win a $750K race at Mountaineer next month, and "Migs" knows his way around Santa Anita plenty well, too.

Churchill's colony, if they're looking for someone to work the horse regularly and ship with him to races, has some respectable possiblities. Young Miguel Mena, 22, is third in wins during the Churchill meet -- ahead of names like Robby Albarado, Shaun Bridgmohan, Corey Lanerie, and Jamie Theriot -- and could use a "big horse" to give his career an extra boost. Not Mena? Try one of those other names I just listed; Bridgmohan in particular. He's 17th in earnings this year among all North American jockeys.

Willing to go with a California-based jock who might be very interested in a mount for the Breeders' Cup out there? Joel Rosario is another who apparently doesn't merit mention among the bios at NTRA, but all he's doing is leading the Hollywood Park meet in wins with 62 from 292 mounts, is second in earnings to Rafael Bejarano, and his jockey agent is track announcer Vic Stauffer, so your gelding is not going to get overlooked when hanging around at the back of the pack before bringing his late run.

I'm not saying Mike Smith is a bad jockey for Mine That Bird. What I'm saying is, if Jerry and Ann Moss or their trainer, John Shirreffs, come up with a horse for the Classic, you're losing him. And with no commitment for September or October, you're possibly losing him even earlier than that.

I'm starting to feel for these guys a little bit, and particularly for their horse. Mine That Bird is a Kentucky Derby winner who deserves a regular rider.

But it looks like the riders the connections want won't make the horse their No. 1 mount, and the good jockeys who'd be glad to make Mine That Bird their No. 1 horse aren't the riders Allen and Woolley want.

Or maybe they're selling the horse before the Breeders' Cup anyway and only need their own jockey for two more races.

Musical saddles: Leparoux's winning day in VA

It ended up being a winning day in Virginia for jockey Julien Leparoux Saturday, but not on the horses he'd expected.

I'd commented late in the week about Julien Leparoux's schedule of five rides on Colonial Turf Cup Day at Colonial Downs. It was of interest to me that Leparoux had secured five mounts in a day at the New Kent track, while Calvin Borel, rider of Kentucky Derby champion Mine That Bird, spent a week in New York trying to get mounts and familiarize himself with Big Sandy before the June 6 Belmont Stakes, and couldn't get on a single horse.

Now it merits reviewing Leparoux's day in Virginia, which included two stakes wins, one graded, and a third-place finish in a Grade 2 race -- only one of them on a horse for which he was named the rider when entries were drawn.

The French-born rider's first mount was to have been in the card's first race, a $7,500 claimer for fillies and mares going short on the grass. But he took off of the 2/1 favorite, Perfect Pet, and she came home third under Jorge Vargas, who took the pickup mount for trainer Tim Salzman.

Leparoux stayed aboard White Pearl for trainer Leigh Delacour in Race 4, a first-level allowance, and he took the 2/1 favorite to the front out of the gate. But she came home seventh, earning $288.

The jockey's first score came in Race 9, but not on the horse to which he was booked. A slew of scratches slashed the 14-horse field for the $50,000 Buckland Stakes down to just four fillies and mares. Leparoux had been scheduled to ride Kosmo's Buddy for Salzman in the race, but she was one of the 10 to be scratched. He ended up absconding with James Lopez's seat aboard Twiceasbeautiful -- who had been 30/1 on the morning line for trainer Michelle Sharp and breeder/owner Linda S. Rosenblatt -- and he won the race with her, a race in which none of the horses remaining to run had been at odds lower than 10/1 when the field was drawn.

Leparoux switched horses and won again in the following race, the All Along S.-G3 for fillies and mares going 9 furlongs on the lawn. He was booked to ride the Florida-based Empire Maker filly Icon Project, but she had been cross-entered by trainer Marty Wolfson into Belmont's New York S.-G2 on Saturday, where she traveled to win the sloppy race once it was taken off the turf; Jose Valdivia Jr. picked up that mount at Belmont.

In Icon Project's absence, Leparoux jumped back aboard Winter View for trainer Jonathan Sheppard and George Strawbridge's Augustin Stable, the breeders and owners. Leparoux piloted the mare to her first stakes win in the Bewitch S.-G3 at Keeneland on April 23. Edgar Prado had been listed as her rider when entries were drawn for the All Along (and she was 6/1), but he ended up aboard 20/1 Julia Tuttle and came home fifth. Winter View was sent off at around 4/1 odds and Leparoux took her from ninth (last), to first by a head on the wire over Tejida and Corey Nakatani for $86,400-worth of the race's 150,000 marbles.

Leparoux's final stakes ride wasn't as successful, but he still came home third beaten less than two lengths in the Colonial Turf Cup-G3 aboard Frank Alexander-trainee Lime Rickey, the only stakes horse to which Leparoux was booked, that he eventually rode on Saturday.

And, when the music stopped, Leparoux was on his way back to Kentucky, where he's scheduled to take nine mounts on a 10-race card at Churchill today.

Colonial Turf Cup: Battle of Hastings and an absent long-shot

An intriguing field of 10 horses will go to post today in the $500,000 Colonial Turf Cup-G2, first leg of the Grand Slam of Grass -- a challenge I wish some top horse's connections will legitimately try to attain someday.

Battle of Hastings(GB), pictured stepping onto Colonial's main track upon shipping in, is a gelded son of Royal Applause out of the blacktype Night Shift mare Subya, and leads the field in the morning line at 2/1. The Jeff Mullins trainee comes in off a near-miss in the American Turf S.-G3 at Churchill on Derby weekend, plus a series of sharp drills. Tyler Baze gets the call in his only scheduled ride at Colonial Downs this weekend, and though the New Kent, Va., turf course isn't the trickiest oval in America, I'd rather see Baze ride something early on the card to sharpen his skills over the course.

Also given a big chance by track oddsmakers are Take The Points (3/1 for trainer Todd Pletcher and jock Garrett Gomez) and Lime Rickey (7/2 for Frank Alexander and Julien Leparoux).

Only one other horse -- trainer Shug McGaughey's Rescue Squad, with Edgar Prado named -- is at single-digit odds, 6/1. And that makes this both an interesting betting race and a strange contest for a Grade 2, $500,000 event.

Where are the proven turf horses?

Giant Oak is sticking to Arlington Park and the $500,000-bonus "Mid-America Triple" of the Arlington Classic, American Derby and Secretariat Stakes. I don't know the health of all the non-winners of the ungraded May 23 Arlington Classic (who now stand no chance of the bonus), but the Turf Cup didn't draw even an Orothodox and Jon Court, surprise 45/1 winners of the American Turf who stumbled in the Classic, nor Arlington Classic placers and showers No Inflation (who went for Churchill's G2 Jefferson Cup last weekend at less than half the purse, finishing third) and El Crespo (Palm Beach S.-G3 winner), nor Classic-favored Golden Mexico(IRE), all of whom are out of the running for the Arlington bonus but could position themselves to run for the Grand Slam with a win in the Colonial Turf Cup, a much-higher-graded and richer race than they just ran with no greater competition.

The G3 Hill Prince at Belmont June 5 was taken off the turf and ended up a five-horse race. But of the four scratches whose connections wanted grass, only Lime Rickey ships south for a chance a G2 turf race and essentially five times the money.

Aside from the 2/1 ML favorite, Battle of Hastings, who is a Grade 3 winner in California sprinting on grass in the Baldwin Stakes and a listed winner at a mile in the La Puente, there's a wealth of unfulfilled potential from this group, no other stakes wins, and very little blacktype for a Grade 2 field.

Second in the morning line at 3/1 is a horse in Take The Points that likewise has no blacktype win, and in his case is also making the transition from the main track (where he placed in the G2 Sham on synthetic in California) to the lawn. After a trio of second-places, Lime Rickey is hoping to break through to the winner's circle in a stakes race, and Rescue Squad is 2-for-5 lifetime with no blacktype at all, and just 6/1.

Let's check the other six in the field for a potential bomb at the window.

At 10/1 are Straight Story (Giant's Causeway), two wins from four non-blacktype starts and $57,350 for trainer Alan Goldberg and rider C.C. Lopez, and Mark S The Cooler (a Johar gelding with earnings grossly wrong at that link), a Doug O'Neill trainee with Corey Nakatani aboard who has won two of nine for about $90K. Both come in off allowance wins on grass and Brisnet speed figures of 93 and 92, respectively.

Clocking in at 12/1 on the morning line is Final Count (Smart Strike), making just his fourth lifetime start (two wins) for trainer P.J. Oliver, with Corey Lanerie up. His maiden-breaking Brisnet speed figure of 93 on Polytrack at Keeneland is consistent with the prior two and he followed that with a turf win at Churchill in his last out.

At 20/1 is a second Pletcher trainee, Al Khali (Medaglia D'Oro), with a curious past. Sent to Peru as a yearling, he placed, then broke maiden, then collected an allowance win at Hipodromo de Monterrico as a 2-year-old. Returned to the States, he won in allowance company at Gulfstream, but was well-beaten in both the Illinois Derby-G2 and Peter Pan-G2. Now he tries grass under Kent Desormeaux.

Co-30/1 shots are Winning Vow (Broken Vow), stakes-placed on grass at Turf Paradise but neither as fast as this field nor consistent, and Dover Street Art(IRE), by Alhaarth, who has the least earnings ($13,687) of a graded-stakes entry that I can remember seeing in a very long time. And I'm was going to pick him. Not so much to beat Battle of Hastings -- for now I think we can see why he's 2/1 and I'm not sure why that isn't even money -- but to potentially, maybe, be that "bomb."

Trouble is, I just noticed at Equibase.com that he's a morning scratch. But you still get to read my reasoning.

Dover Street Art's earnings are held down a bit because he started his career in Britain, where fans of U.S. racing might be shocked to know that the purses for maidens and others in the lower conditions can be paltry. But Dover Street Art was second in his debut at Lingfield at 2, then won at Great Leighs next out over Tartan Gunna, a horse who has since won three times outside of stakes company. Speed figures are available from Brisnet for neither, but Racingpost.com says his Timeform mark for the 2-year-old win was an 83.

Shipped not only to the States, but way out West, he resurfaced in the La Puente, where he was rank early, got a wide trip, surely needed the race from a four-month layoff, and lost to Battle of Hastings by 7 1/2. But his next two efforts, both on synthetic, were a 90 speed figure placing fourth in an optional $80K claimer and an 84 digging in on the rail for third in an allowance.

I liked that he, like Mark S The Cooler, is trained by Doug O'Neill, who I doubt would've considered hauling him cross-country if he didn't think the colt could figure. He wasn't getting a marquee jock, and SoCal staple Agapito Delgadillo would've had a lot of work to do aboard a colt who has been described as "pulling" at the jockey in more than one race. But I think the horse will appreciate his eventual return to turf, and is perhaps bred for more distance than he's been getting; dam Santa Sophia (Linamix) made only seven starts, but one a stakes win in the Lingfield Oaks Trial at 11 1/2 furlongs.

And in this group that has done little to prove themselves in stakes company, Dover Street Art just might have been near the front at the end, and at considerable odds.

Now, back to my question about when someone will truly pursue the Grand Slam of Grass: What's it gonna take?

Colonial this season would seem to be the place to start for a 3-year-old turf router. The Turf Cup is now a Grade 2 with a $500,000 purse. The Virginia Derby in July is likewise a G2 that I think is destined for Grade 1 status, and you can't quarrel with a $750,000 pot for 3-year-old restricted competition. Then, take a shot at Arlington's Secretariat (still amid 3-year-olds only) and three of the four legs could be yours.

Clearly Arlington has struck back with its $500,000 bonus to any horse that can win its Mid-America Triple, but the purses of those first to races are smaller (the third is the Secretariat Stakes that is also part of the "Slam") and the graded-blacktype is lighter.

And obviously the final race of the Grand Slam is the toughest: The Breeders' Cup Turf at 12 furlongs among older horses. But it's been won by a 3-year-old before (three of the last seven, in fact, with Conduit last year, Red Rocks in 2006 and High Chaparral's first of two in 2002). The task isn't impossible.

Of course, all of those 3-year-old winners were Euros. And they have plenty of their own races to run at all summer.

But I'm still waiting for the year when American connections take a colt -- maybe European-bred -- and sweep the trio of 3-year-old legs of the Slam (by then probably a G2 Turf Cup, G1 Va. Derby and G1 Secretariat), at least giving their charge a chance at the Slam and its $5 million in combined purses and bonuses.

Whatever 'it' is, Leparoux has it and Borel must not

Whatever it is that Julien Leparoux has that Calvin Borel doesn't, it could pay off for him Saturday when he rides Lime Rickey in the Colonial Turf Cup-G2 at Virginia's Colonial Downs.

Borel, rider of arguably the two most famed horses in America this spring -- Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and Kentucky Oaks and Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra -- was reportedly shut out of nearly a week's worth of rides at unfamiliar Belmont Park leading up to the June 6 Belmont Stakes. Borel ended up with no mounts from which to learn the race-riding ways of Big Sandy, so when he took Mine That Bird out for the Test of the Champion, it was an extra-tough exam; one in which the duo fell short.

Leparoux, on the other hand, is named on horses throughout the day Saturday at Colonial, where he's mostly in town -- if Colonial's rural New Kent location can be called "town" -- to ride Lime Rickey.

I'd written that Borel's absence from the irons all week at Belmont amounted to "blackball by default," reasoning that the Belmont trainer colony had little if any reason to put Mine That Bird's jockey aboard their horses to school his rider for the big race. I considered that there might have been some insidious reasons for the refusal to hire Borel -- I say "refusal" because, by Steve Haskin's account, Borel tried and failed to get mounts -- but that there didn't need to be any animosity against the "Churchill-shipper" of jockeys order for him to be closed out of opportunities.

Now I'm left wondering, because Leparoux -- a fabulous rider, arguably the most accomplished apprentice in history and at 25 years of age already one of the finest jockeys in the land -- has had no trouble finding horses at Colonial where, in theory, most of the same reasons that Belmont trainers might not hire Borel should also apply. Granted, Leparoux's name might tumble from most educated lips before Borel's in the discussion of the top active race-riders, but if they're that educated, not too long before. And was any jockey in America hotter than Calvin Borel heading into Belmont week?

I noticed Leparoux's considerable presence on the Colonial card for Saturday when I realized that a filly bred by some Virginia horse friends -- Lisa and Gordon Calhoun of Perfect Peace Farm -- was entered in Race 1. Perfect Pet (Marquetry-Red Devilette, by Oh Say) drew the 12 post of 13 entries, and her trainer, Timothy E. Salzman, per the program at least, has secured the services of one Julien Leparoux.

It's a $7,500 NW2L claimer. Julien Leparoux. Wow. Get pictures, Gordon and Lisa. I know you plan to be there.

Then I scanned down the card. Leparoux is not named for races 2 or 3, but has the 1-horse, White Pearl, for trainer Leigh Delacour in Race 4, an allowance. He's off until Race 9, when he takes Kosmo's Buddy for Salzman in the Buckland Stakes. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Leparoux is up for all the stakes races save one (the $30,000 Old Nelson Stakes) on a busy added-money day for Colonial, riding Empire Maker filly Icon Project for Marty Wolfson in the All Along Breeders' Cup S.-G3, as well.

He should be good and warmed-up when he legs-up to Lime Rickey in the Turf Cup for trainer Frank Alexander.

Several other "name" riders will be at Colonial Saturday: 2009 Belmont winner Kent Desormeaux; always superb Garrett Gomez; Hall of Famer Edgar Prado; California ace Corey Nakatani; and the accomplished Corey Lanerie among them. A few have picked up other mounts, but none of them are named on as many horses as Leparoux and most are sticking to the stakes races. Tyler Baze will be on-hand only to ride Battle of Hastings(GB) in the Turf Cup.

O.K., so five mounts isn't like Leparoux is riding every race on the card. But Leparoux is named on five horses out of 12 races on a single day, and who knows, he might pick up more once he gets there. And per the program, Leparoux is only riding on Saturday -- he's not named on any mounts Friday or Sunday at Colonial. So his one-day trip to New Kent could result in five rides (or more), three in stakes company, while Borel spent the better part of a week at Belmont and couldn't talk his way onto a single horse.

Leparoux's considerable skills aside, I just can't explain that.