From 'Boo' to Kentucky Derby-winning 'Bo-Rail' What a ride it's been for Hall of Fame inductee Calvin Borel

Ted Lewis | Written for the LSWA

Show Caption Hide Caption Video | Calvin Borel signs autographs on Aug. 27 Jockey Calvin Borel signs autographs at Ellis Park on Aug. 27, 2016.

Among other things, Calvin Borel has three singular accomplishments on horse racing’s biggest stage, has been presented to Queen Elizabeth at the White House, chatted with Letterman and Leno, rung the opening bell on Wall Street and played himself in a movie.

That truly is, in the words of the trainer of the first of his unprecedented three Kentucky Derby winners in four years, “going from the sugarcane fields to the pinnacle of your sport.”

Not bad for someone originally nicknamed “Boo” because he was born 12 years after older brother Cecil, in the St. Martin Parish community of Catahoula when his mother was in her 40s. In other words, he was a “boo-boo.”

Some boo-boo.

At age 4, “Boo” was on a horse. By age 8 he was riding in match races in the bush tracks of Acadiana. By the eighth grade, Borel dropped out of school to pursue his profession full time.

“I was born to be a jockey,” he’s said. “And my brother taught me everything.”

More than 5,000 official victories and $128 million in winnings later, Borel is still at it, having ended a short retirement last year to come back a few months later shortly before his 50th birthday because, he said, “This is what makes me happy.

“I love to ride. Whether it’s a $5,000 race or a million-dollar race, there’s nothing like getting to the wire first.”

It’s hardly surprising then that Calvin Borel was elected to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He and 10 others will be enshrined in Natchitoches on June 24 to culminate three days of festivities.

Borel adds the honor to being inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 2013.

“Calvin’s a one-of-a-kind guy,” said Carl Nafzger, the trainer of Street Sense whom Borel rode to victory in the 2007 Kentucky Derby. “He really, really loves to ride because he’s a horseman who loves horses and his horses respond.

“If Street Sense had had to have gone through a brick wall, Calvin could have gotten him to do it.”

Street Sense may have given Borel his first dose of national attention, but it was a race years before that and closer to home that may have been his most memorable.

In 1991, the 24-year-old Borel rode Free Spirit’s Joy to victory in the Super Derby at Louisiana Downs. It was Borel’s first victory in a stakes race and it came aboard a 28-1 Louisiana-bred longshot trained by the late Clarence Picou of New Orleans.

That made it the first Louisiana sweep in what was then a $1 million Grade I race.

“When Calvin took the lead at the top of the stretch, people who had bet on the other horses tore up their tickets and started rooting for him.” said Buff Bradley, Picou’s assistant trainer. “And the winner’s circle was just a mess.

“You couldn’t hear anything because the fans just kept on cheering. It just meant so much to everybody.”

In 2009 Borel scored an even-bigger upset victory, guiding 50-1 longshot Mine That Bird to his second Kentucky Derby triumph.

Aboard the obscure qualifier from New Mexico, Borel hung back early, almost losing contact with the field, until making his trademark move to the rail before bursting through to win by an impressive 6 ¾ lengths.

“It was the perfect marriage of horse and rider,” Mine That Bird trainer Chip Wooley recalled. “We thought holding him back was what we needed to do, but not every jockey will listen to you.

“They want to get up there from the start. Calvin listened and executed, and you saw what happened.”

The improbable victory was recounted a few years later in the movie “50-1,” which got little attention and even less favorable reviews, save for a mention about Borel’s self-portrayal.

“At first it seems like a chancy move to cast an amateur in the role, but Borel more than makes up for his lack of smooth acting skills in those moments when he relives that day in May 2009,” a reviewer wrote. “The man’s genuine happiness and humble joy in the winner’s circle will bring tears to your eyes.”

Mine That Bird’s victory earned Borel his other nickname, “Bo-Rail,” given to him for his ability to so often find the inside path to victory.

It was a style helped Borel win four riding titles at Churchill Downs, and, before that, three at Louisiana Downs whose circumference is much like Churchill.

Nobody, Borel’s longtime manager Jerry HIssim said, could cut to the corner like Calvin because nobody else had the knowhow or the nerve.

2012 interview with Jockey Calvin Borel on riding the rail Three-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Calvin Borel talks about winning the Derby, riding the rail, and being fearless on the track while staying humble. (By Matt Stone, The Courier-Journal / May 11, 2010)

But Borel’s real education came from his brother, who was a jockey himself for a time before becoming a trainer.

“When I started riding, my brother put cones in the middle of the shed row and I’d say, ‘What the hell you doing that for?’" Calvin once related. “He said, ‘That’s how far you’ve gone. You lose so much ground.’

“I realized after that, I’m going to start staying a little bit closer to the fence. The rail is the quickest way from start to finish.”

Borel’s early riding days were at Delta Downs, much of the time for his brother.

He would win three riding titles there, the first in 1985 at age 19.

Borel’s career really took off in 1990 when he teamed with Hissim. With Hissim doing his booking, Borel won three titles at Louisiana Downs, two at Oaklawn Park, his preferred winter headquarters, and two more at Kentucky tracks other than Churchill.

It was a relationship that lasted 24 years until Hissim was forced to retire due to illness.

“The secret to our success was that I didn’t tell him how to ride and he didn’t tell me how to agent,” Hissim said. “And we didn’t get involved with each other socially, although Calvin’s like a son to me.

“That allowed us to keep the emotion out of doing business.”

That included making the decision in 2009 to come off Mine That Bird in the Preakness in favor of filly Rachel Alexandra, on whom Borel had won a resounding victory in the Kentucky Oaks the day before the Kentucky Derby.

“We felt that Rachel Alexandra was the better horse and we’d told Chip before the Derby that if her connections wanted to go for the Preakness, that was our choice,” Hissim said. “There was no real argument about it.”

For Borel, who calls Rachel Alexandra “the best horse of my life,” it meant giving up his shot at the Triple Crown. But it turned out to be the right move.

Rachel Alexandra won the Preakness, becoming the first filly to do since 1924 and Borel became not just the first Derby-winning jockey to ride against the Derby winner in the Preakness, but also the first to win both races in the same year aboard different horses.

But when Rachel Alexandra’s owners held her out of the Belmont, Borel went back to Mine That Bird, who was third in the Belmont.

“Calvin and Jerry were a great team and very professional,” Wooley said. “We appreciated the fact that they came to us before the Derby and laid everything out. Then, when Calvin was available again, we were glad to land him.

“It was the only time we worked together, but I’ll tell you this — I would name Calvin Borel on any given day on any given horse.”

Returning to Rachel Alexandra, Borel won the Mother Goose Stakes by a record 19 lengths and later to a six-length victory against Belmont winner Summer Bird in the Haskell Invitational, plus the Woodard Stakes, making her the first filly to win the storied race at Saratoga.

Rachel Alexandra was named Horse of the Year and Borel was named winner of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.

In 2010 Borel rode Super Saver to victory in the Kentucky Derby. No other jockey has won the Derby three times in four years.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a jockey come to the paddock more focused,” Super Saver trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He was in the zone.”

That brought Borel to the peak of his fame. His only regret, he would recount emotionally, was that his parents weren’t alive to witness it happen.

And before, during and afterwards, Borel remained a fan favorite.

“I never heard him say no to anybody,” Hissim said. “He always signed autographs, was courteous and loved children.”

Still, Borel rejected opportunities to expand his presence on the national stage, preferring to concentrate on Oaklawn and the Kentucky tracks.

“He’s never worried about how big he can be,” Nafzger said. “He’ll say, ‘I’m Calvin Borel and I can ride.’

“That’s enough for him.”

Borel’s success rate did slow after the Super Saver year — his last stakes victory was in 2014 — but he still surpassed the 5,000-victory mark in 2013, making him just the 26th American jockey to do so while also becoming the second-winningest rider in Churchill Downs history.

“Calvin Borel is a very special individual in the history of the Kentucky Derby and Churchill Downs,” track spokesman John Asher said at the time. “People loved Calvin before he won that first Kentucky Derby.

“They respected his work ethic and his concern for the animals. He was out there every day and they knew he was among the first people on the backside every morning.”

Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel on retirement/unretirement Tim Sullivan caught up with three-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Calvin Borel on the backside at Churchill Downs. Borel talked about retirement and coming back out of retirement . . . and riding the rail.

After a slow recovery following a spill in late 2015 that pushed his broken bone total to the mid-40s, Borel made a surprising announcement in March 2016 that he was retiring to the hunter/jumper farm in Florida that he owned with his longtime companion, Lisa Funk.

But in August of last year, following a breakup with Funk, Borel came back to racing, declaring that he never wanted to quit and that, “This is a business you can’t have one foot in and one foot out.

“I wasn’t giving it 110 percent like I know I can. I’ve worked hard to get where I am and I’m going to enjoy the rest of my life.”

To Nafzger that is the essence of Calvin Borel.

"He’s a great horseman doing what he loves,” he said. “He’s never been anyone else and he didn’t try to be anyone else.

“He’s just Calvin Borel.”