Borel seeking a triple
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Calvin Borel is back on Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and he's thinking about another Triple Crown victory.
"We're gonna win, no questions asked," Borel predicted after a workout yesterday at
That was his Derby-winning formula.
"He worked in [at] 50 seconds and out in 1:02, just like before the Derby. He is doing everything the same," the jockey said. "After those two hard races [the Derby and Preakness], I think the [gelding] is very happy."
It seems like everybody in Mine That Bird's camp is happy these days.
That starts with Borel.
He would have ridden Kentucky Oaks and Preakness Stakes winner Rachel Alexandra if the filly had entered the Belmont Stakes. But Barbara Banke, wife of co-owner Jess Jackson, says they're looking out for her future and passed on the race. Borel said he is committed to ride the horse for the next year.
So Borel is back on Mine That Bird, with a chance to win all three legs of the Triple Crown on two horses, something no jockey has done.
He's already way past his dream of just winning the Kentucky Derby. He's done that twice, the first time aboard Street Sense in 2007.
And what do he and Mine That Bird need for a win Saturday?
"We just gotta get lucky," he said, wearing a Mine That Bird hat, before the horse's morning work. "Me and the horse fit good."
Trainer Chip Woolley thinks his horse may be even better now after a second-place finish in the Preakness in which he was closing on Rachel Alexandra.
"I was thinking last week, he's probably training better than he did going into the Derby," Woolley said. "Calvin got the work I wanted out of him this morning . . . They just looked like they were bread and butter."
Banke is going to be on Mine That Bird's side when the Belmont gates open.
"I'm hoping Calvin gets the Calvin Triple Crown," she said. 