11/9/06

FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
CONTACT: TAMARA CRONIN
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
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CHESTER, WV — BOREL HAS HIS EYE ON THE MOUNTAINEER MILE by Bill Mooney

Last Saturday, Calvin Borel rode Street Sense to a stunning ten-length victory in the $1.83-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs. This Saturday, Borel will shoot for another stakes score, when he rides a 5-year-old horse named Go Now in the 34th running of the $125,000 Mountaineer Mile Handicap at The Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort.

The 40-year-old Borel is one of the most accomplished journeyman jockeys in North America. Through November 6 of this year, his career statistics included 28,802 mounts, from which he had gained 4,245 victories, 3,876 second-place finishes and 3,347 third-place finishes. The horses he has ridden have earned nearly $81.8 million.

Borel is originally from St. Martin Parish in Louisiana, which is also the home of many of that state’s thoroughbred breeding farms. From his boyhood days, the lure of the racetrack preoccupied his thoughts.

“All I ever wanted to be was a jockey,” Borel said. “A lot of kids make plans to be firemen, cowboys or astronauts. But I knew by the age of eight that riding in horse races is what I wanted to do.”

Included on Borel’s resume are 211 career stakes victories. One of them occurred on October 3 of this year, when he booted Go Now to a half-length triumph in the $75,000 Fall Stakes at Mountaineer.

Go Now is a solid runner, with a nice pedigree. He is a son of Go for Gin, who won the 1994 Kentucky Derby. And, on his maternal side, Go Now is a grandson of Forty Niner, who was North America’s 2-year-old champion in 1987.

Career statistics for Go Now include 37 starts, six victories, 14 placings and earnings of $351,214. He is owned by the Bowman Couch Racing partnership and is trained by Ron Moquett, who took over conditioning chores for Go Now from Hall of Famer Nick Zito this past June.

In his first start for Moquett, Go Now finished second in the $75,000 Slipton Fell Handicap at Mountaineer. John McKee rode Go Now that day, but Borel has since become his regular jockey. Go Now has thus competed twice at Mountaineer, both times in stakes, and has  achieved a win and a placing at the Hancock County track for his efforts.

Borel began his riding career in match races at Louisiana’s unsanctioned ovals when his age was still in the single digits. He has been riding at recognized thoroughbred meets since 1983. For most of his career, Borel has plied the circuit that includes Louisiana, Arkansas and Kentucky. Horsemen have dubbed Borel with the nickname, “Bo-Rail,” because of his penchant for taking the inside route to victory.

Indeed, that’s what Borel did with Street Sense last Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill. In 12th position (in a field of 14) through the opening half-mile of the 1 1/16-mile event, Borel angled his mount to the rail entering the far turn, slipped through an opening near the fence, charged to the front and was gone.

“We could have taken the outside route, and tried to go around everybody,” Borel subsequently said. “But, if the shorter pathway’s available to you, that’s where it’s best to go.”

Street Sense’s margin of victory was the largest in history for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. And for those who backed him, he returned $32.40, $12.60 and $8 across the board. He is a homebred owned by James Tafel, and is trained by Carl Nafzger, and will now get a few months off, before embarking on a campaign that points him to next year’s Triple Crown races.

While the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile was the richest race that Borel has ever won, he has registered many other prominent scores. In 1991, he booted Free Spirit’s Joy to victory in the $1-million, Grade 1 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs.
In 1993, he won the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park with Rockamundo, at the rather extraordinary odds
of 108-1.

He has twice won Oaklawn’s Grade 1 Apple Blossom Handicap, with Halo America in 1997 and with Gourmet Girl in 2001. In 2000, Borel won the Grade 1 Oaklawn Handicap with K One King. And, in June of this year, he was victorious in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill with Seek Gold.

Borel is not one to brag about his success, but he is willing to discuss it matter-of-factly. “I’m pretty good at finishing up races,” he said, “and I am very good at switching the whip, from my right hand to the left hand, and then back to the right hand again.”

His work ethic never wavers. The day after his Breeders’ Cup win, Borel was at Churchill before the sun was up, conducting horses through their morning workouts. His brother, Cecil, is a trainer, and the two of them often work together at Oaklawn, where the annual race meet begins in late January and ends in mid-April.

Something that’s interesting to note is that Mountaineer’s Fall Stakes is contested at
1 1/8 miles. In Go Now’s Fall Stakes victory, he stalked the pace early on, moved to the front at the eighth-pole and registered a solid winning time of 1:50.98.

The Mountaineer Mile is a furlong shorter in distance, and if Borel puts Go Now in a stalking position again, he should have plenty of gas left in the tank for the stretch run, on the inside or on the outside. Of course, the path near the rail constitutes the shortest distance between the starting gate and finish line. And also the shortest path to the winner’s circle – a place that Calvin Borel is very adept at reaching.

Mountaineer Mile Notes: Scott Lake, who through last Sunday led all North American trainers with 506 wins this season, is sending Sinister G postward in the Mountaineer Mile Handicap. A front-running sort, Sinister G has two career wins at the one-mile distance, and has accumulated $564,066 in career earnings . . . the 11-horse field that has drawn in for the Mountaineer Mile is the largest for the race since 2000, when the same number went postward.