LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It was another rail-hugging Derby for jockey Calvin Borel, but unlike last year, he fell just short.
Borel, who saddled last year’s Derby winner, Street Sense, got a third-place finish this time from longshot Denis of Cork. The horse was in last place at the three-quarter poll but rallied inside to show at the end.
“He ran a huge race,” Borel said. “We saved every inch of ground we could just to get there.”
Trainer David Carroll said the horse did the best he could considering he was coming from post 16.
“I think with an inside post, he would have been laying a little bit closer,” Carroll said.
Retired Papa.
There won’t be the typical spike in stud fees for the sire of Derby winner Big Brown.
He has been retired from breeding.
Boundary, who has sired 21 stakes winners, lives at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., where he previously stood as a stallion.
The horse raced for two years, winning six of eight lifetime starts. His career as a stallion included 11 crops, 421 foals, 323 starters and 244 winners.
By comparison, Big Brown’s dam, Mien, has produced just four foals, including two race winners.
Stage fright.
Recapturetheglory’s jockey, E.T. Baird, said his horse was awfully skittish leaving the paddock. It didn’t really show on the racetrack, though, as he finished a respectable fifth.
“He went to bucking and dropping his head, and he just dropped me in the tunnel,” Baird said. “On the racetrack, he was all right.”
Julep costs a mint.
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Paul Azinger took one sip of the mint julep, then joked that his team of golfers needs to start every tournament with such a drink.
Of course, this wasn’t just any mint julep. It was one of the $1,000 varieties served on Derby Day at Churchill Downs.
