Calvin Borel still the super saver
For a jockey who has made a reputation by taking the shortest route, Calvin Borel certainly had to take the long one in terms of his career.
Life may begin at 40 but not many sportsmen really believe that yet, at 43, Borel won the Kentucky Derby for the third time in just four years when Super Saver ploughed through the slop on Saturday.
Not only did that win finally break trainer Todd Pletcher’s 0-24 record in the race it also put Borel out on his own. No jockey has won the race that the Americans call “the Run for the Roses” so often in such a short time span and only three jockeys have more victories in the Derby. Eddie Arcaro won it five times from 1938 to 1952, Bill Hartack equalled that from 1957 to 1969 and Bill Shoemaker won four from Swaps in 1955 to Ferdinand in 1986.
These are names that are spoken of in reverential terms within American racing. All three riders were inducted into the Hall of Fame, which could well be the next stop for Borel, but it seemed an unlikely residence just a few years ago for the man from south Louisiana. The son of French-speaking, Cajun parents, he was first put up on a horse at the age of six and followed his brother, Cecil, a would-be jockey who became a trainer, at the local Delta Downs track in Vinton, Louisiana.
Borel was a professional rider at 16 and over the next 25 years became known for an indefatigable approach to the job and a preference for taking ground-saving runs along the rail, to the point that he is known as "Calvin Bo-rail".
Home these days is listed as Louisville, Kentucky but it might just as well be the inside paling on the dirt track at near-by Churchill Downs, where Borel has become almost as much a fixture as the twin spires that dominate the grandstand skyline. The first significant win for Borel came at Churchill in the Stephen Foster Handicap in 2006, when 91–1 long-shot Seek Gold got up in the very shadow of the post to nail Perfect Drift by a nose and later that year the man whose career had been drifting along suddenly hitched a ride on the perfect storm of big winners.
It began when he won his first Breeders' Cup race on Street Sense in the Juvenile, of course when the meeting was held at Churchill Downs, and then returned eight months later for the Kentucky Derby. No colt had won both races but, with another trademark ride, Borel came from nearly last to first as Street Sense beat Hard Spun by two-and-a-half lengths. He reprised that ride on Mine That Bird two years later, having won the Kentucky Oaks on Rachel Alexandra the day before.
Mine That Bird was a 50-1 winner in 2008 but the backers were starting to get the message. This year Pletcher’s Derby record may have been off-putting but a morning deluge that turned Churchill Downs into a muddy morass, Super Saver’s form in the slop and Borel in the saddle was the holy trinity that paid off. It was another rail-run, the only time that Borel was not scraping paint was to round the early leader Conveyance before powering down the home stretch as he came two-and-a-half lengths clear of the fast-finishing Ice Box.
Borel had arrived and as Gary Stevens, a three-time Derby winning jockey himself said: “You don't get lucky three times in four years. It's genius what he's doing.” If it is genius it comes without the ego that other sportsmen seem to regard as de rigueur. Those who were up and about early at Churchill Downs during Derby week would have seen Borel assist his brother with his training operation. And not just riding; no job was too small or unimportant and if a stall in the barn needed to be cleaned, the shovel and broom was not far from his hand.
However, it is the Triple Crown that Borel is looking to clean up with Super Saver - something that has not been achieved since Affirmed – ridden by Steve Cauthen - won in 1978 and all roads lead to Pimlico for the Preakness on May 15th. “I'm going all the way this year,” Borel said.
“This is what I wanted to do all my life. It's every jockey's dream to win the Derby and I never dreamed I would win three Derbys. But I've worked hard and I'm dedicated to this job and I love the game. It's just what I love to do, and I'm very successful with it. I'm very blessed. I've got a wonderful wife and a good agent, good family in my life and I'm very blessed, very blessed.”
Not just blessed but tough too. Borel has almost given up counting the number of broken bones that have come with the 4,700 winners but the best estimate is 39 and the loss of his spleen. What has not been misplaced is the nerve to take the short route to success. "Some horses don't like to be there [along the rail] and you've got to go around,” he said. “I was just taught that it's the shortest way around and I love to ride the fence."
Which is what makes Borel the original super saver.
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