'Bird's brother has a name ... Brother Bird

Steve Haskin of The Blood-Horse reports that the 2-year-old brother of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird now has a name -- Brother Bird.

That's the moniker registered for him by Dogwood Stable, who bought him for $485,000 at the recent Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training.

The name fits, I suppose. He'll have to do some real running to make people remember him as more than just Mine That Bird's brother.

Meanwhile, what a tidy profit for Paul Saylor. He bought the colt for $100,000 at the March Timonium 2-year-old sale. A few weeks later, MTB's sloshing home first at Churchill and a quick rollback of the colt into another sale attracts a price $385,000 higher than Saylor paid.

That's the kind of quick profit of which the econ major at UVA can be proud. It's like Brother Bird won Saylor a Grade 1 purse without ever wearing the owner's orange and teal.

'Bird's baby brother goes to the dogs ...

Errr, that is, to Dogwood Stable.

The Blood-Horse reports that a half-brother to Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird has sold this morning at the Fasig-Tipton Mid-Atlantic sale of 2-year-olds for $485,000.

The colt actually has 2009 Triple Crown ties on both sides of the family. In addition to being half-brother to the Derby champ and Preakness-placer (both being out of the Smart Strike mare Mining My Own), the sales colt is a son of Yonaguska, sire of Musket Man, who was third in both races. (And who won the Illinois Derby-G2.)

Yonaguska, who started his stud career in Kentucky but who now stands at Elite Thoroughbreds in Folsom, La., has a 2-year-old sales average entering 2009 of just $57,299 by comparison. So this is a big sales success for the sire ... thanks of course in large part to the dam and the sibling.

That price, by the way, is a darn sight loftier than the figure Mine That Bird sold for as a yearling: $9,500.