A Close Encounter With Mine That Bird

Roswell, N.M., a town of less than 50,000, is best known for the alleged crash of a UFO in 1947. Today, a few miles from the International UFO Museum and Research Center that chronicles the disputed event, there lives a scrappy bay gelding whose achievement in 2009 was as unlikely as an alien spaceship crashing to earth. 

Unlike the UFO of that bygone era, though, Mine That Bird's remarkable victory in the 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) is indisputable. And today, he most assuredly calls New Mexico home.

Mark Allen's Double Eagle Ranch sits about five miles outside of Roswell. Here, Mine That Bird spends his days in a roomy paddock partially shaded by a canopy adorned with his own replica twin spires.

Nearly a decade after the 50-1 longshot surged from dead last to overtake the leaders and romp to a nearly seven-length victory in the Louisville classic, Mine That Bird remains a muscular, bay stunner. On the day I visited him, the New Mexico sun beat down and reflected brightly off the horse's well-brushed coat.

While most Derby champs go off to stud farms and command large sums to pass along their athletic genes to subsequent Thoroughbred generations, gelding Mine That Bird keeps 59-year-old Allen company and ensures a stream of visitors to the ranch.

"It's a lot of fun," said Allen as he stood at the tailgate of a pickup truck parked beside the Bird's paddock and adjusted his black cowboy hat. "He probably gets 15 or 20 visitors a week. He's changed our lives."

Allen campaigned Mine That Bird with retired equine veterinarian Dr. Leonard Blach. Blach, nearing his 84th birthday, might be the more sentimental of the two men. When Bird retired, he never considered doing anything other than bringing the horse home.

"We've had some offers to send him back to Old Friends [Thoroughbred Retirement Farm] and stuff like that," Blach said as he leaned back behind his desk in his Buena Suerte Equine Clinic office. "But, he's part of Mark's family. He's part of my family, so we weren't about to trade him off to anybody."

The owners' homes are mere yards from their famous horse's paddock. They see the horse every day, feed him peppermints, dote on him, and even have long talks with him. They love their horse.

"We give him a bath once a week or so," Blach said. "He has visitors, so he's always presentable. He's a real fan, a real show. Of course he knows company, He knows when he's got visitors and loves those peppermints."

(I lost count of how many of those peppermints I fed the blissful Bird from the palm of my hand. At one point, he became impatient with me, chomping down on my thumb when I failed to unwrap his treats quickly enough. "Hey now!" Allen said to Bird firmly as we all chuckled at the horse's determination.)

Bird's retirement hasn't been spent entirely in the paddock. Allen has occasionally thrown a Western saddle on his champion, put a snaffle bit in his mouth, and taken him out for a trail ride.

"I took him out on the trail when we were doing an event at the Air Force Academy in Colorado," Allen said with a broad smile. "I was opening and closing gates on him by the end of that ride. He was very professional."

When the movie "50-1," which chronicles the dramatic Mine That Bird story, came out in 2014, Allen trailered the horse to countless movie premiers. The easygoing horse grazed on grass patches near movie theaters and happily ate carrots, apples and peppermints offered by fans.  "He knows he's a star," said Allen.

Having seen a few snapshots of Bird in Western tack and a smiling Allen in the saddle, this reporter-turned-cowboy wondered if he might saddle up the famous Derby winner for a ride around the Double Eagle Ranch. No such luck.

"He's totally retired now," Blach told me with a tone of paternal protectiveness. "He's got three paddocks that we rotate him in. He's put on some weight. He looks good. We don't ride him anymore."

Still, before my visit to the Double Eagle Ranch was complete, Allen gave me a leg up and allowed me to sit bareback on the famous horse. Bird was nonplussed by this move and stood calmly as I settled my 6 foot 4 inch, 180-pound frame onto his broad back.

Sitting on a Kentucky Derby champion was the perfect way for a horse-obsessed journalist to conclude his New Mexico sojourn. I'd made the trip to feed an infatuation with racehorses that began when I covered Smarty Jones  for a Philadelphia TV station. That horse compulsion continued with coverage of Philadelphia colts Afleet Alex , Barbaro, and Hard Spun . By the time I left Philly, I'd become far more star-struck by standout horses than by human athletes and had even adopted a grandson of Secretariat. Sitting on the brawny Bird while patting his withers was bucket list stuff for this reporter.

In the movie about Mine That Bird, the horse's connections are depicted as rough-edged ranchers. If you visit Mine That Bird in Roswell, though, you'll meet two gracious gentlemen and an undersized racehorse with an outsized heart, all willing to share their story with you.