Jockeys
The Borel Factor
Imagine the Derby winning rider on another horse, muses Jennie Rees:
Not to disparage the jockeys of the horses below, and maybe it wouldn’t apply at any other track, and maybe not any other race. (And in no way to take anything away from Super Saver’s big effort.)
But wouldn’t you want to know what kind of trips that Lookin At Lucky and Ice Box would have gotten if Calvin Borel had been aboard?
Both might have had better trips with Borel aboard, but would it have mattered for either? I briefly wrote about the Derby fractions yesterday; individual splits were ugly, final fractions lousy. It seems unlikely a rider change would have meant anything to Lookin at Lucky, “bumped two or three times” in the early going. After a troubled first in :25.84, the favorite did pick up the pace a little, running the second quarter in :24.11, the third in the same time, and the fourth in :24.62, but his final quarter was an unexciting :26.95. Whatever else happened, Lookin at Lucky didn’t have it yesterday — not losing ground at the start might have moved him up in the order of finish, but he wasn’t going to win. Ice Box is a little more interesting to consider: He ran every quarter but the first faster than the winner. You can’t begrudge trainer Nick Zito for wondering about what might have been, if the Florida Derby winner had only broken a bit more quickly and not been steadied twice in the stretch.
That Rees is even wondering about what could have been with Borel reflects how big a story is the rider this year: “Borel is the Derby king,” with his uncanny affinity for Churchill Downs. Blame the rider “for turning America’s great race into a rerun” with his rail-riding confidence. Call him “a man of destiny.” “He knows Churchill Downs better than anyone else,” and his “uncluttered mind seems to be an absolute gift in pressure situations.” After winning three times in four years, is there any chance the public will let Borel go to post in the 2011 Derby on a horse that’s more than 3-1?
How Super Saver prepped: Lightly. This year’s winner started in two preps (making him the fourth consecutive horse to win the Derby doing so — it’s time for me to concede such contenders must be taken seriously) and had only one work between the Arkansas Derby and Kentucky Derby:
Of the top five finishers, two came out of the Arkansas Derby (Super Saver, Noble’s Promise) and two (Paddy O’Prado, Make Music for Me) from the Blue Grass Stakes — a reminder that race still has some claim as a legitimate Derby prep, regardless of what handicappers think of the Polytrack era or its longshot winners.
5/3/10 Addendum: Somehow I missed Borel’s post-Derby prediction:
“I’m going to win the Triple Crown this year,†he declared.
Congratulations
To Ramon Dominguez: The rider reached a milestone on Friday, earning win #4000 aboard Fortyninegeorgest in the second race at Aqueduct. Dominguez, who began riding in 1996, spent his first full season at Saratoga in 2007, and moved his tack full-time to New York in 2009, won an astounding 376 races on the circuit last year, sweeping every riding title. Should he keep up that torrid pace, Dominguez can look forward to hitting win #5000 by 2013.
To Rosie Napravnik: The 21-year-old jockey scored her first graded stakes win in the Cicada Stakes on Liam’s Dream at Aqueduct on Saturday.
To the NTRA: After the embarrassing fizzle that was the March 13 launch of NTRA Live!, the organization rebounded on Saturday with a near-flawless webcast of the Florida Derby, which was displayed on a clutter-free page with clear, helpful links above and a live chat running alongside. NTRA vice president Keith Chamblin told the Thoroughbred Times that the NTRA “added some servers” and did additional site testing in advance of yesterday’s show. The NTRA also apparently removed the requirement to register or login before viewing (perhaps they took Superfecta’s advice?), as it was possible to pull up the page without being prompted to do either. Although demand was probably lower for the Florida Derby webcast than it was for Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, the steps the NTRA took to bolster their capacity to host viewers surely helped make Saturday’s live video a success. Well done!
Miss Milfred’s Ambition
From the Saint Paul Daily Globe, August 10, 1892:
CHICAGO, ILL., Aug. 9. — Frances Milfred would like to be a jockey. She is from Missouri and knows how to handle a horse. Being fond of outdoor exercise and a lover of excitement, she is determined to do something besides play the typewriter or call “cash.” She is now visiting Chicago, and will not return to St. Joe unless she fails to secure a position with some owner of fast horses. It is her ambition to come down the stretch in a whipping finish and land her horse about two lengths ahead of Fox, Goodale, Overton, Penny and other slim-waisted young men who think they can ride.
Miss Milfred, after coming to Chicago a month ago, visited Washington Park and watched the flyers for several successive days. She lost $13.50 in cash ventures, but discovered a new sphere for women. The more she watched the races the more firmly she became convinced that she could learn to ride as well as any one else. Once she had been in the Kiralfy chorus and had made only $10 a week. When she heard that jockeys often made $100 for winning one race, that settled it.
Saturday evening the following “ad” appeared in one of the papers:
LADY aged twenty-five, from West, good rider, would like to learn to be a jockey. Address S. B. 84.
An encouraging letter addressed to S. B. 84 brought a reply that Miss Frances Milfred would be at home Monday at No. 17 Upton Street. There she was found, in the bottom flat, a brown-haired, slim young lady of pleasant features and a desire to explain her ambition.
“In the first place, my weight is all right,” said she. “With me it is a serious matter. I want to do something to make a living, and believe I would make a good jockey. Ever since I can remember I have been accustomed to handling horses. Four years ago I was counted the best rider in St. Joe, and once I won a race at a county fair. Do you see any reason why a young lady should not be a jockey? No. Neither do I. My folks would object, of course, but if I don’t succeed here I’m going East and try it.”
The original “jockette”?
Odds and Ends
From an interview in TDN with David Milch, on “Luck,” his new show for HBO:
I hope it’s going to be an awful lot of fun, but I am realistic enough to know that not every day at the racetrack ends with people skipping happily through the flowers. With anything that is a passion, I think it’s a passion because it accomodates a whole range of feelings, some of which are mutually exclusive. It’s both love and pain. I would hope this will render the full spectrum of emotions. If you ask me whether I’m looking forward to it, I’m absolutely looking forward to it. Do I expect it to be fun? I’m not sure.
Milch knows the darker side of racing and gambling well. Via o_crunk, a profile of the writer that includes a fascinating scene revolving around a tip.
The only anxious moment came heading into the first turn, when it appeared that Bunker Hill, under Chuck Lopez, would challenge Understatement on the front end. Following a glance from Cohen, Lopez backed off.
“I gave him a look like ‘Come on man, don’t do that to me,'” Cohen said. “Save that for the next race.”
Bunker Hill finished last in the Evening Attire Stakes, won by favored Understatement in 1:42.94 with unchallenged ease on Saturday at Aqueduct.
Zenyatta will race in 2010! Reactions to the thrilling news gathered here.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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