LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Calvin Borel has only a nodding acquaintance with the King’s English. His dentist can get him in and out in 15 minutes.
Don’t ask him about Shakespeare, because he’ll want to know which race he’s in.
But come the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs, nobody speaks more clearly, looks better or is smarter. Put him on your horse and raise the mint juleps in victory.
Trainer Todd Pletcher did that in the 136th Kentucky Derby on Saturday, and the same thing that had happened two of the last three years happened again. Borel won, aboard 8-1 Super Saver. No other jockey has won three of four Kentucky Derbies.
“Calvin is a great rider,” Pletcher said after winning his first Derby, “but put him at Churchill Downs and he’s five lengths better.”
Borel, who began on the bush tracks of Louisiana, has found his riding home beneath the fabled Twin Spires. He has become the easy rider of Churchill Downs, its perfect pilot.
Borel’s amazing run started aboard Street Sense in 2007, and it created a buzz in horse racing, as he made several masterful maneuvers to get the 2-year-old champion to the line first.
Then last year, when he somehow guided Mine That Bird, a 50-1 impossibility, past the 19 other horses and into the winner’s circle, he left the racing world speechless.
Jaws dropped and millions were left holding worthless tickets and asking, “Who was that and where did he come from?”
Borel did it again Saturday. More speechless people, another perfect ride that saved ground all the way.
It is well known that his nickname is Calvin Bo-Rail, signifying his tendency to keep his horse on the inside, and wait and wait until a hole opens for a dash to the finish. What isn’t well known, nor the least bit understood, is how 19 other jockeys, all veterans, can allow the rail to keep opening up for the man who is named for it.
Asked about that, Borel said only: “It takes a good horse.”
Trainer Bob Baffert, whose favored Lookin At Lucky got buried in the No. 1 post at the start and ran a heroic race just to finish sixth, probably got closer to the truth.
“Calvin is fearless,” he said.
When the consensus best horse, Lookin At Lucky, drew the inside post — a spot from which even the best horses immediately get squeezed down by the 19 others — handicappers started looking elsewhere. Then the rain was forecast and descended with such force Friday night and early Saturday that they needed Noah to build another ark. By then, few had a clue.
There were a couple of hints. Pletcher, among the best trainers in the country, was 0-for-24 in Derby starts. He began the week with five horses entered, including the overwhelming favorite, Eskendereya, whom he had to scratch with an injury. That still left him with four and he seemed due.
Plus, Super Saver had been one of the only horses in the field to have run in similar conditions, winning in September at Belmont Park.
Then there was the Borel factor. From the No. 4 hole, Borel and Super Saver were off and running, smooth as silk, right on the rail at the start.
They were never farther back than sixth, never more than a couple of feet off the rail, never in trouble. On the way home, Borel had merely to go around one horse and listen to the crowd of 155,804 cheer him to victory.
