Sunday, May 31, 2009 | Sports
SP Betting on the jockey, not the horse

Enjoying the ride with Calvin Borel

Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Calvin Borel celebrates winning the 135th Kentucky Derby atop Mine That Bird on May 2.

By Lola Blue

Past the banks of the Ohio River, near the Kentucky-Indiana line, lush hillsides flanked both sides of the highway as Fulton Shelley and I drove through Louisville. Whiskey signs lingered on billboards as we passed the burial location of Col. Harland Sanders, father of finger-lickin’ good chicken, and Kaden Tower, a 15-story skyscraper locals call the Ugliest Building in Louisville, the Pink Monstrosity or the Doily Building. But the landmark we were most interested in was the twin spires atop the grandstands at Churchill Downs, as we made our way to the famed home of the Kentucky Derby. 

This particular Saturday wasn’t Derby Day, or a day that had any races, really, to write home about. There weren’t that many people around, and the few who were there were dressed in jeans and T-shirts, with only the occasional gal wearing a garish hat. But there was something exhilarating about visiting the site of the most exciting two minutes in sports, and the chance to catch a glimpse of the jockey who could make history this Saturday at the 141st running of the Belmont Stakes.
When one reads about Calvin Borel in articles and blogs, his work ethic is a consistent theme. And on this particular Saturday, Borel, who won this year’s Derby and Preakness, rode on horses with bad odds in race upon race that didn’t draw huge crowds. And yet he wore a smile upon his face the entire time.

“All I ever wanted to be was a jockey,” Borel once said. “A lot of kids make plans to be firemen, cowboys or astronauts, but I knew by [age] 8 that I wanted to ride races.” He dropped out of school with an eighth-grade education, but perhaps one could say he was working toward his Ph.D. on the tracks. In his 40s, Borel had his first significant career win at the 2007 Kentucky Derby, atop Street Sense. 

Writers don’t have much business wasting dollars these days, so we kept our bets to a minimum. With my horseracing confidence at a low, I was sure of only one thing, and that was Borel. I placed five bets, all of them on him. Fulton was more knowledgeable; he studied the program, read the odds and made his wagers. But maybe in this particular climate, it isn’t such an odd thing to wager on a jockey, especially a jockey who won 14 of 25 assignments over Memorial Day weekend.

No horse has claimed the Triple Crown since Affirmed won it in 1978, and there won’t be a horse to win the prize this year. But jockeys have won the Crown, including Steve Cauthen (Affirmed), Jean Cruget (Seattle Slew) and Ron Turcotte (Secretariat). This year, Borel won the first two legs of the Triple Crown, riding Mine That Bird in the Kentucky Derby with 50-to-1 odds, and then taking the Preakness Stakes on the thrilling Rachel Alexandra, who became the first filly since 1924 to win that race at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. If Borel wins the Belmont Stakes Saturday in New York, he will make history as the first jockey to win the esteemed prize on different horses. The big question now is, which horse will he ride? 

Mine That Bird seems the obvious choice, unless Rachel Alexandra enters the scene; as of this writing, her owners hadn’t decided if they would enter her in the race. But regardless of which horse he chooses, and regardless of the odds of victory, I think Borel will do exactly what he did on this particular Saturday. Before one of the final races, we shared a quick moment. I shouted “Win!” at him, and he smiled back. I could see it in his eyes. After decades of racing, Borel is still enjoying the ride.

The next day, as we made our way back to Atlanta through beautiful Kentucky horse country, we made a quick pit stop in a speck of a town named Corbin to see the world’s first Kentucky Fried Chicken, where Col. Sanders sold his wares back in 1937. Back on the highway, we saw the Colonel’s face plastered on signs across Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia, and I wondered: How many people would have wagered on him to succeed way back then? Maybe the same number who would have bet on a ninth-grade dropout from Louisiana ultimately racing for history in the Sport of Kings. SP

Sports Editor Hunt Archbold is celebrating blessed happy birthday times (among other things) at the beach. His column will return next week.