An hour or so after Rachel Alexandra was loaded onto a van bound
for Baltimore-Washington Airport at 6 a.m. yesterday morning, Mine That
Bird was once again the undisputed star of the Preakness Stakes Barn.
Trainer Chip Woolley sat back in a director’s chair, staring in the
direction of Stall 40, the reserved residence of the Kentucky Derby
winner each May, assessing his own whirlwind entry into thoroughbred
racing’s stratosphere.
“You spend a lifetime working to get here,” said the New
Mexico-based trainer, both thrilled and disappointed with his little
gelding’s second-place finish behind Rachel Alexandra in the Middle
Jewel of the Triple Crown. “It’s kind of a stamp on your career when
you win that first one. Then, you come back and re-stamp that same
stamp on the next one.”
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