Mine That Bird faced about 50-to-1 odds of winning the 135th Kentucky Derby — but that didn't stop the horse and jockey Calvin Borel from creating the biggest upset in almost a century.
Borel rode Mine That Bird up the rail from behind, pulling ahead 6 ¾ lengths for the win. Can he do it again in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes?
Watch the amazing win after the jump!
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Kentucky Derby
4 pm/ET NBC
""The most exciting two minutes in sports" begin at 6:04 pm/ET in Louisville, preceded by two hours of anticipation (or anxiety, depending on how much moolah you've got invested in the race). While sipping that mint julep, enjoy one part red-carpet interviews with the rich and famous at Churchill Downs, and two parts race buildup, focusing on profiles and analysis of the expected 20-horse field. Likely post-time favorite I Want Revenge has the services of teenager Joe Talamo, a likable star of Animal Planet's reality series, Jockeys. Among the trainers, three-time winner Bob Baffert is squarely back in the Derby spotlight with Pioneerof the Nile, while Todd Pletcher has three more chances (Dunkirk, Advice, Join in the Dance) to end his personal Derby hex. For those who remember ill-fated 2008 Derby runner-up Eight Belles, her trainer, Larry Jones, is taking another shot at the Roses with Louisiana Derby champion Friesan Fire.
Read on for previews of JONAS, Living Out Loud, The Best of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and NASCAR Racing.
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Of the near-record 459 horses nominated in January for Triple Crown consideration, only 20 get to dig their hooves into the Churchill Downs dirt for Saturday’s 134th Kentucky Derby (May 3, 5 pm/ET, NBC). This year's Run for the Roses includes a thusfar underachieving crop of three-year-olds, with undefeated Florida Derby winner Big Brown looming largest. “He clearly has fewer blemishes than any other horse going into the race,” says NBC analyst Bob Neumeier, “but he still has his own questions.” Such as only having run three races in his lifetime — a historical Derby no-no’s. (Though Curlin fared well last spring in that role: Third in Derby, first in Preakness, second in Belmont, on his way to Horse of the Year.) More helpful to handicappers like Neumeier is that Big Brown’s pre-Louisville resume does not include races on the game’s perplexing new synthetic-surfaced tracks, on which fellow top contenders Pyro (trained by Curlin’s St...
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