Surprise, surprise!

There are some things that shouldn't be missed. The running of the 2009 Kentucky Derby is one of them. If you didn't see it live, do as I did and go to kentuckyderby.com and view the recording. You're going to see a horse come from so far behind the rest of the field the camera couldn't include him in its view. He was so far back that for the first half of the race, the announcer only mentioned him once and, even then, almost as an afterthought. His trainer drove him the 23 hours to the track.

This isn't the story of a horse that was expected to win. This is about a horse that would finish the race as he began: in last place. But somewhere along the backstretch, something began to happen. The Horse from Nowhere started gaining ground. As the field rounded the final turn, the announcer excitedly described the leaders, first one then another, and only as horse and rider suddenly emerged along the rail did he shout, "Mine That Bird come now to take the lead..."

The odds were 50:1. Who in their right mind would risk $1000.00 to win $100,000.00 on a relatively unproven horse? To all appearances, he didn't have a chance. Not a snowball's chance. It would have made as much sense to take that thousand dollars and use it to light a post-race cigar. But not only did Mine That Bird win, he won by the greatest margin of victory since 1946.

It might have been the track -- it was wet and he might be a "mudder," to put it in racing jargon. The kind of track that slows other horses is just right for him. The longer races of the Triple Crown may be his undoing. Then again, it just might be that Mine That Bird is a horse with more talent and nerve than anyone imagined and the Kentucky Derby is just the beginning. I hope so. I hope he proves that you can come from nowhere and beat the odds. I hope he shows us all that achievement isn't about expectations or reputation: it's about drive and desire.

It's about heart.

(Creative Commons image of Mine That Bird by Jerry W. Lewis via Flickr)