Catching Up With Bird Town

Bird Town dominates the 2003 Kentucky Oaks. (Photos by HorsePhotos)
A product of the Marylou Whitney breeding program, Bird Town was the first of the “Birds” to dominate the top 3-year-old races in the early 2000s, with her half-brother Birdstone winning the 2004 Belmont Stakes and two of his sons winning classic races in 2009.
Bird Town had only one stakes win going into the 2003 Kentucky Oaks, which helped keep her odds at 18.20-to-1, making her the fifth choice in a field of 12. Those odds would make those who had the superfecta in the Oaks very happy.
Elloluv and Tempus Fugit went to the lead and battled it out, with Bird Town racing six lengths behind the leaders after a half-mile after overcoming a stumble at the break. With a little more than a quarter-mile to go, Bird Town finally made her move and was a neck behind the leader with a furlong left. She waited until the final sixteenth to put in her real run, leaving her challengers in the dust to win by 3 ¼ lengths. Behind her, the second-, third-, and fourth-placed horses had only a little over three quarters of a length separating them for a superfecta that paid $8,543.70.
2003 KENTUCKY OAKS

The Kentucky Oaks provided the history books with two new facts by the end of the running of the race. The pace Elloluv set up front allowed the race to record its fastest-ever time at the 1 1/8-mile distance, with the clock stopping at 1:48.64. Surprisingly, the victory was also the first Kentucky Oaks win for future Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who would go on to accomplish another first the following year when winning the Belmont Stakes with Birdstone.
“It's wonderful. I can't thank God enough,” Zito told ESPN. “I have the same feeling I have winning the Kentucky Derby, honestly.”
In her next start in the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park, Bird Town saw a dramatic drop in her odds when she went off at 2.60-to-1, but she still wasn’t the favorite. The previous year’s champion two-year-old filly, Storm Flag Flying, was making her second start of the year in the race as the top betting choice.
Making a drastic change from her Kentucky Oaks running style, Bird Town went straight to the front and dueled with Randaroo for the lead, never more than half a length from that rival while the two were on the front end. Randaroo wilted in the stretch but Bird Town wasn’t about to get a breather with Lady Tak flying up from the back of the field. Bird Town was able to get to the finish line without losing the lead, winning by a head.
With the Acorn win, Bird Town became only the ninth filly to win both the Kentucky Oaks and Acorn Stakes.
BIRD TOWN AFTER THE ACORN

Bird Town returned to a sprint distance for her next start, the seven-furlong Test Stakes. The filly had won her first stakes race at the distance, leaving no doubt that the shorter distance was within her wheelhouse, and bettors sent her off as the favorite for the first time since the conclusion of her two-year-old season.
But Lady Tak was back for another try and this time made sure she was within a closer range of the lead. The fillies raced in second and third in the opening stages but as they entered the stretch, Lady Tak took over the lead and was 5 ½ lengths ahead with a furlong left to run. Bird Town attempted to reel her in but was unable to, finishing 4 ½ lengths behind in second.
Bird Town wasn’t able to get within 4 ½ lengths of a victory in her next two races, and after she finished second to Sightseek by that margin in the Beldame, her connections decided to retire her.
Her overall body of work that year included two Grade 1 wins and three other graded stakes placings, earning her champion three-year-old filly honors in 2003. During her career, Bird Town won four of her 12 races with six seconds and one third for $871,251 in earnings.
Bird Town was retired to Gainesway and the next year visited 2003 Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker. She produced a colt from that mating followed by a colt and filly from her next two matings. None made it to the track, but the filly produced Pow Wow Wow, who was third in the 2013 Forward Gal Stakes.
In 2009, racing owners were finally able to add a piece of Bird Town to their stables when her 2008 Bernardini colt went through the auction ring in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. It was the first – and only – time a Bird Town foal has went through the auction ring.
Later named Gyre, the colt was racing royalty with his sire being the 2006 Preakness winner and champion three-year-old male Bernardini, who stood at Darley America for $100,000 when Bird Town met him in the breeding shed. Darley was determined to bring the well-bred colt home, paying $1.3-million and making him the third most expensive horse at the auction behind two other Darley purchases.
Gyre wasn’t able to do much on the track, only racing three times and retiring with $1,734 in earnings.
Bird Town’s next two foals were her most successful on the track with Prescott Brown, by Awesome Again, providing her with her first winner. His year-younger, half-brother has proved to be the best of the Bird Town foals so far. By Giant’s Causeway, Eton Blue broke his maiden in his second start then finished second to multiple Grade 1 winner Verrazano in his next start. Eton Blue made a bid for the Kentucky Derby when running in the Tampa Bay Derby, where he finished fifth.
Now running at the allowance level, Eton Blue has $67,400 in earnings so far in his career and has already made multiple starts in 2015.
Bird Town has one other active racehorse on the track, a four-year-old Tapit gelding named Tapit Town who has been off for a year but recorded a workout in early 2015. She has a two-year-old colt by Unbridled’s Song named Bird Song and an unnamed filly by Giant’s Causeway, the first filly she has produced since 2006.
Bird Town is not pregnant with a foal this year but at only 15 years of age, we can look forward to seeing her foals on the track for years to come.