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Can’t get enough of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird? Now you can see him all day long on the MineThatBirdCam

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Thoroughbred racehorse Mine That Bird went from a virtual unknown to an equine celebrity earlier this year when he won the Kentucky Derby with 50-to-1 odds. The Canadian-born, 15-hands-high horse’s big win also did a great deal to shatter a racing stereotype that geldings -- Mine That Bird is one -- can’t win races.

Why buy a racehorse who can never be put out to stud? One of Mine That Bird’s owners, Mark Allen, was succinct in his explanation. ‘We wanted a racehorse, not a stallion,’ Allen told the New York Times after his horse’s victorious run at Churchill Downs.

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Well, while we are not the biggest fans of horse racing as a sport -- how could we be, when more than 1,200 horses died at American racetracks last year alone? -- we are big fans of underdogs in general, and of Mine That Bird specifically. It’s with that in mind that we advise you, via our colleagues at The Times’ Fabulous Forum blog, that a new 24-hour webcam has been installed in Mine That Bird’s stall, complete with streaming live video from Southern California’s own Santa Anita racetrack.

Mine That Bird is at Santa Anita for the Oak Tree meeting’s Santa Anita Challenge Day tomorrow. You can see him pacing, eating, sleeping and doing all the other fascinating things horses do here. Santa Anita track spokesman Mike Willman told the Fabulous Forum that more than 14,000 visitors have done just that since the webcam was installed Wednesday. Happy horse-watching!

-- Lindsay Barnett

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