Only -109 day until Kentucky Derby 134!

Classic Spotlight: Birdbirdistheword



Racing Analysis by Steve Haskin

Anyone old enough to remember the train wreck of a song called "Surfin’ Bird," which was released in 1963 by a group aptly named The Trashmen, will find it hard to resist thinking back to that song every time they say the name Birdbirdistheword.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, rent the movie Full Metal Jacket, and you’ll hear the tuneful strings and stirring lyrics, "A well-a well-a, well-a, everybody’s heard about the bird…bird, bird, bird…bird is the word."

Helicopters are also known as birds, so it is understandable why director Stanley Kubrick used that particular song to depict the madness of the Vietnam War. Also, Birdbirdistheword’s owner, Raymond Cottrell Sr., served three tours of duty in Vietnam, so it all makes sense…sort of.

But enough of the name. What is important is the horse, who is known in trainer Ken McPeek’s barn as Bird Bird.

A $26,000 buy-back as a yearling at the Ocala January mixed sale, the colt was sold to McPeek at the Ocala yearling sale that August for $32,000. It has already proven to be a huge bargain. Bird Bird has won three of his five starts, including earning the $600,000 winner’s share of the Boyd Gaming’s Delta Jackpot (gr. III), in which he turned in an electrifying move on the turn to blow by the entire field. And his prior race, a fourth-place finish in the Lane’s End Breeders’ Futurity (gr. I), was a solid effort, as he made another huge move on the turn, going from seventh to third before racing evenly late, so this colt has proven he can turn on the juice. He just needs to time his move a little better.

After shipping from Kentucky to Louisiana and then to Florida, he was given some time off, and is now back training sharply for his 3-year-old debut in the March 10 Louisiana Derby (gr. II).

A big race there and you can bet "Surfin’ Bird" will resurface in all its glory. Listening to it years later, it really does grow on you in a weird way.

Pedigree Profile by Avalyn Hunter

Hampton Belle, a daughter of the staying Hampton, was one of the many mares imported by James R. Keene, who liked mating stoutly-bred English mares with speedy sires from the male line of Domino. In due course she was mated to Domino’s son, Disguise, and the resulting filly, Court Dress, was a champion at both 2 and 3 in 1906-07.

Although she was exported to France in 1912, Court Dress left behind Inaugural, a 1910 daughter of Voter. Through Inaugural, Court Dress is the ancestress of such standouts as Horse of the Year Charismatic and champion Pavot, as well as leading sires Exclusive Native and Riverman.

Whether Birdbirdistheword can join such exalted company is a question for the future, but given that he is already a grade III winner, he certainly has promise. A descendant of Inaugural’s granddaughter Fleur, he is the result of crossing a rather off-bred dam with a regally pedigreed sire. His first two damsires are Rocky Mountain (by Alydar) and the good racehorse but poor sire Greinton. But Birdbirdistheword’s sire, Pure Prize, has as fashionable bloodlines as anyone could want. A son of Storm Cat, he is out of champion Heavenly Prize.

Rather surprisingly, given that both parents were grade I winners as juveniles, Pure Prize proved a later-maturing sort who did not score in a stakes until he won the Kentucky Cup Classic Handicap (gr. II) at age 4. He has proven more his parents’ son as a sire, however, with five juvenile stakes winners from his first crop of 74 foals. Birdbirdistheword is his only graded winner so far, but given that Pure Prize and Heavenly Prize both improved substantially with maturity, more may well be forthcoming.

"Not a real robust horse" in the words of trainer Ken McPeek, Birdbirdistheword is one of a number of horses with very light pre-Triple Crown campaigns planned and will need everything to go perfectly if he is to make the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). Still, the word is out—"Bird" is a potential Derby colt, and if all goes well, the potential may become reality