The Derby duo is no more

Well to the suprise of no one, Calvin Borel is out as the jockey of Mine That Bird, link. This is the best thing that could happen to both sides. For Dr. Bach and his partner whose name I will not say do to his "idea", earlier this year and trainer Chip Wooley, they can find a jockey that is loyal. And for Calvin, he can focus on his two big horses, Rachel Alexandra and Warrior's Reward. Also he had no earlier connections with Chip, where as he had some connection with Steve Asmussen and he is the 1st call rider for Ian Wilkes.

That doeesn't this is mean it's disapointing. Here is a horse that everbody called a fluke, his jockey left him and then almost got beat on Rachel by the so called fluke. In all honestly, the Belmont was proably going to be his final ride on Mine anyway (in my opinon). It was strictly a bussiness decideson. And hopefully both sides will be able to move on for the rest of the year.

Previews for this weekend's 3 G1's will go up tomarrow.

The Game we call Cat and Mouse

This is pretty much what the jockey situations for Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird have turned into. We will not know until next week weather Rach will go, or who will ride Mine. Chip Woolley announced today that we announce next week who will ride Mine, after Jess Jackson announces weather or not Rach goes. Link Either way, this cat and mouse tatics will be over in a little bit over a week.

Speaking of the Belmont, Mr. Hot Stuff fired a bullet on Tuesday, link. He'll be ridden by Edgar Prado, who will be receving the highest sports award in Peru. It's unknown when he'll be presented with this award however, link. So congrats to him!

A.P. Arrow who was fifth in the 2005 Belmont Stakes, will begin his stud career in South Africa, link. Good luck to him at stud. Also Pioneering looks like he will be leaving Overbrook for Brazil, link. While not as successful at stud as his half brother Storm Cat, he did have a G1 winner. But, he's more known as the sire of The White Fox and So Long Birdie, Birdstone and Bird Town's half brother who stands in New Mexico. His owner? Mark Allen, the co-owner of Mine That Bird.

Also if anyone knows any info how Sky Mom is doing after the Arlington Matron accident, please post a comment here. Yes I know she was DQ'ed to last, but that's all I know.

Ads, Jockey and a new look

You can see on the right side of the page that there is something new. And I will be explaining about it in a moment. A new horse racing education site is opening later this year called Hello Race Fans (One of the co-founders is Dana of Green But Game). In order to help fund the opening, the founders have created the Hello Race Fans Ad Network. I'm super excited to see how well this does with not only the advertising, but the content of these blogs and websites. I have a feeling that this will be a very successful program. I'm pleased to announce that Thoroughbred Chat has joined this exciting program.

Here is an edited Press Release basically explaining what it is. Link

Also, Mine That Bird's jockey announcement was apparently supposed to come today. No announcement, however someone tried to be cute and put up an add for a jockey on Craig's List (BTW the e-mail does not work as it leads to a ski resort in Utah). Link

I'm seriously thinking of hosting a Horse Racing Bloggers Roundtable, sometime after the Belmont (it will probably be in mid to late June). If there are any bloggers out there who interested in doing this, please post a comment below or let me know at thoroughbredchat at yahoo dot com. I think this would be a really fun thing to do.

Last, but not least, the blog will be getting a little bit of a makeover within the upcoming weeks. I just have to choose something and then we will be good to go for the makeover.