Back on Mine That Bird, Borel aiming for an unprecedented Triple Crown

Calvin Borel is back on Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and he's thinking about another Triple Crown victory.

"We're gonna win, no questions asked," Borel predicted after a workout yesterday at Churchill Downs, where the gelding did a half-mile in 50 seconds.

That was his Derby-winning formula.

"He worked in :50 and out in 1:02, just like before the Derby. He is doing everything the same," the jockey said. "After those two hard races [the Derby and Preakness], I think the [gelding] is very happy."

It seems like everybody in Mine That Bird's camp is happy these days.

That starts with Borel.

He would have ridden Kentucky Oaks and Preakness Stakes winner Rachel Alexandra if the filly had entered the Belmont Stakes. But Barbara Banke, wife of co-owner Jess Jackson, says they're looking out for her future and passed on the race. Borel said he is committed to ride the horse for the next year.

So Borel is back on Mine That Bird, with a chance to win all three legs of the Triple Crown on two horses, something no jockey has done.

He's already way past his dream of just winning the Kentucky Derby. He's done that twice, the first time aboard Street Sense in 2007.

And what do he and Mine That Bird need for a win Saturday? "We just gotta get lucky," he said, wearing a Mine That Bird hat, before the horse's morning work. "Me and the horse fit good."

Meanwhile, one of the horses Mine That Bird beat in the Derby, Nowhere to Hide, also worked yesterday but won't be competing in the Belmont.

* Vincent O'Brien, one of horse racing's great European trainers during a career that lasted more than a half century, died at age 92. O'Brien, an Irishman, retired from training in 1994. *