Calvin Borel - Life and Career

Life and Career

Calvin Borel hails from south Louisiana: the heart of Cajun Country, and famous for having produced a number of top jockeys since 1990. Like Randy Romero, Kent Desormeaux, and Shane Sellers, Borel began racing horses in the bush tracks near his hometown of Catahoula and started riding in match races at the age of eight. He is known for his Cajun accent and bubbly and emotional personality, both of which were on full display during his post-victory interview after all three of his Kentucky Derby wins.

Borel's older brother, Cecil, had a brief career as a thoroughbred jockey but was not able to maintain his weight. He turned to training horses at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana. Calvin began his professional riding career at Delta Downs.

Over a career that has spanned 25 years, Borel has become known for his tireless work ethic as well as an ability to slip up the rail to save ground; his colleagues and racing fans therefore frequently refer to him as "Calvin Bo-rail".

Borel is 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) and 116 pounds (53 kg). He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Lisa Funk.

His riding career began to surge in June 2006 when he won the $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs with 91–1 longshot Seek Gold, getting up in the final stride to win by a nose over Perfect Drift and paying $185.40 to win. That year was his big break when he won his first Breeders' Cup on Street Sense in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

Borel then won the 2007 Kentucky Derby aboard Street Sense, guiding the colt to a 2 1⁄₄ length victory over Hard Spun. He next had a close second-place finish aboard Street Sense in the Preakness Stakes to Curlin.

On July 5, 2007, Borel became the sixth jockey in the history of Churchill Downs to win six races on a single race card. With his victory in the July 5, 2008 Bashford Manor Stakes, he became the thirty-fourth jockey in North American Thoroughbred racing history to win 4,500 races.

May 2, 2009, saw Borel win the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird, a 50–1 long shot, a day after winning the Kentucky Oaks aboard favorite Rachel Alexandra. It was only the second time since 1993 that a jockey has won the Oaks-Derby combo, and he was just the seventh jockey overall to accomplish this feat in the same year.

On May 16, 2009, Borel won the Preakness Stakes on Rachel Alexandra (after that horse was sold following the Derby). This accomplishment marked the first time that a jockey won the first two legs of the Triple Crown on different horses, and Borel, with a win in the Belmont, could become the first Triple Crown winner since Steve Cauthen accomplished it in 1978 on Affirmed. A win would have made him only the second individual to win the Triple Crown by sweeping the races with different horses (D. Wayne Lukas, a trainer, also did so in 1995). However, on June 6, 2009, Borel finished 3rd on Mine That Bird in the Belmont Stakes, failing to accomplish a jockey Triple Crown.

On June 27, 2009, he guided Rachel Alexandra to a 19 1⁄₄ victory in the Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park, setting a new stakes record. Borel then rode her to a six-length victory over Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird in the Haskell Invitational.

On September 5 of the same year, he rode Rachel Alexandra to a historic victory in the Woodward Stakes. It was the first time a filly of any age had won that storied race.

Borel was named the winner of the 2010 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.

On May 1, 2010, he rode Super Saver to win his 3rd Kentucky Derby in a 4-year span, the first jockey ever to do so. After winning the race, Borel promised that he would win the Triple Crown in 2010, but he lost the Preakness.

On June 4, 2010, Borel became only the second jockey to win 1,000 career races at Churchill Downs, joining Hall of Famer Pat Day.

On August 20, 2011, Borel was arrested in Evansville, Indiana for allegedly driving while intoxicated.