D. Wayne Lukas, a winner of a record 18 Breeders’ Cup races, is hoping he gets a chance to add to that number with Double Eagle Ranch and Buena Suerte Equine’s Mine That Bird, winner of the 2009 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). He is pointing the 4-year-old to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (gr. I) on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs, though he is not confident the gelding will draw in.
“I don’t think he will get in but he has done very well since he got back here from Saratoga,” Lukas said.
Lukas said Mike Smith would have the mount on Mine That Bird.
Mine That Bird has been with Lukas for five months and had three starts in 2010, a failed comeback race on the turf in the Firecracker Handicap (gr. IIT) in July and two off-the-board finishes at Saratoga in the Whitney (gr. I) and Woodward (gr. I).
Since returning to Churchill Downs he has had five works, two of them bullets. Lukas said if Mine That Bird does not get in the Dirt Mile, the $100,000 Ack Ack Handicap (gr. III) at 1 1/16 miles on the main track on Nov. 5 is a possibility.
“It is up to them,” Lukas said of the owners.
Lukas has two other possible Breeders’ Cup horses but acknowledged they are also on the bubble to get in: Westrock Stables’ Tidal Pool for the Sentient Jet Filly & Mare Sprint (gr. I) and Westrock Stables and Barry Butzow’s Hamazing Destiny for the Sentient Jet Sprint (gr. I). Smith would have the mount on Tidal Pool and Terry Thompson would ride Hamazing Destiny.