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From Pat Forde --- espn.com (archive)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Calvin Borel won the hearts of racing fans and animal lovers Saturday when, minutes after winning the Kentucky Derby, he grabbed a sponge from a groom and personally bathed the neck and face of his brilliant mount, Street Sense.

So how did the critter repay his benevolent jockey Wednesday morning?

By biting a chunk out of Borel's left arm. Seems Borel was visiting trainer Carl Nafzger's barn at Churchill Downs during his usual morning rounds, and he had some carrots to deliver. But he stopped and gave a carrot first to a horse in Street Sense's neighboring stall.

Street Sense's nickname around the barn is Big Daddy Rabbit, because of his love of carrots. Naturally, Big Daddy took offense at having to wait in line, so he reached his neck out and chomped on his rider's triceps. "He got pissed off," Borel explained without rancor.

The blood was still oozing when Borel shrugged off his silks after riding the first race at Churchill Wednesday afternoon. He finished fourth in a $14,000 claiming race aboard 9-5 favorite Slews Mountain Gal.

Bloodied and beaten, life after the Derby was a return to reality for Mr. Calvin Borel.

Which was fine with the new hero of horse racing. "I'd rather be out here with people," Borel said. "Working my horses."

This is where Borel is most comfortable: among the horse people and the race fans who cheer him on. The one place you never see Borel without a smile is when he's on the back of a horse. That's a big reason why he was such a wildly popular Derby winner with the home constituency. "I'm a very likable guy," Borel said matter-of-factly. "Everybody likes me, and I like everybody."

Mundane happiness had been pretty much all the 40-year-old had known -- until those startling two minutes Saturday. And the surreal 72 hours that followed.

Between winning the roses and reporting for the first post Wednesday, an eighth-grade dropout and life-long second-tier jockey wound up in a tuxedo at the White House. He and his fiancée, Lisa Funk, rubbed elbows with some of the most powerful and influential people in the world at a last-minute invitee to a state dinner.

Calvin Borel, about as worldly as the horse he rode in on, was actually bear-hugged by the president of the United States.

"Picked me up," Borel said with a smile. A man accustomed to risking his life daily on the racetrack was justifiably scared up until that point. George W. Bush put Borel at ease by asking him, "Where'd you steal that tuxedo?"

"I found it by the side of the road," Borel responded, relaxing.

Then the son of a sugar cane farmer from St. Martin Parish, La., greeted the queen of England. He talked horses with Colin Powell and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He ate dinner next to the president's daughter, Barbara.

Among those at his table were "a football player, I forget his name."

Peyton Manning, perhaps? "Yeah, that's him," Borel said.

The invitation to this elite and effete event was so far beyond the pale that both Borel and his agent, Jerry Hissam, greeted it like a get-rich-quick call from a telemarketer.

When Hissam's phone rang Sunday morning and the female voice on the other end said she worked for the White House, his antenna detected a prank. Even in the afterglow of such a compelling career achievement, there was little reason to expect the leader of the free world to suddenly desire your presence.

"I'm thinking, 'What agent put this woman up to this?' " Hissam said.

So he listened to the spiel from the woman who identified herself as Laura Bush's personal assistant and said, with no small amount of acidity, "You are going to send a private jet for him, aren't you?"

At this point the conversation turned testy. The woman informed Hissam that she'd been trying to reach him for 12 hours and dropped the name Will Farish, former ambassador to England and a board member at Churchill Downs, Inc. Not until then did Hissam start taking notes on Borel's proposed itinerary. Heck, by mid-afternoon he'd grown suspicious again and put out a round of calls to make sure this was legit.

When he got the call from Hissam, Borel was suspicious, too.

"I thought he was messing with me," Calvin said. Before and after that once-in-a-lifetime dinner, he worked in an appearance on "Good Morning America" and another on "ESPN's First Take." But he also turned down an offer to appear Wednesday night with Jay Leno, because it would cost him two days away from the races.

And make no mistake, the races are where Calvin Borel wants to be.

"Just another day," he said before starting Wednesday's race card. "That's how I got here. You can't forget them people. I never forget where I come from. "I'm gonna ride him [Slews Mountain Gal] just as hard as I rode Street Sense."

A hard ride didn't make much difference with that mount. Or with Bobby Jack, a third-place finisher in the third race.

But the man nicknamed "Bo-rail" for his steely ability to urge horses through on the rail picked up wins in his next two races -- both times charging through on the inside down the stretch. He booted home Pennypinchinpete by a nose in the fourth race and won in the seventh aboard Vicarian with a ride that was so inside that the horse actually hit the rail with a sixteenth of a mile to go. Even after finishing up the track on his final mount, Espoof, Borel walked off the track the way he always does. Smiling.

"Awesome day," he chirped. "Can't complain."

No, he cannot. It doesn't suck to be Kentucky Derby winning rider Calvin Borel. But in the sunny man's mind, every ordinary day prior to last Saturday was fairly awesome, too.

From the Times-Picayune (2009)

(snip)

BELMONT, N.Y. -- Calvin Borel, who will be riding for an unprecedented jockey's Triple Crown when he rides Mine That Bird in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, has been making the rounds in New York since arriving Monday.

Borel can become the first jockey to sweep a Triple Crown series on more than one horse. He won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird and the Preakness on the filly Rachel Alexandra, who won't be running in the Belmont.

On Monday night, Borel taped "The Late Show with David Letterman." The show will air Friday night.

"Me, Paris Hilton and somebody else," Borel said. "That was a kick."

On Monday afternoon, ESPN cameras followed Borel and Lisa Funk, his fiancee, on a visit to Times Square. "There's more stop signs on one corner than the whole Catahoula," said Borel, 42, who was born in St. Martinville and grew up in Catahoula. "It was awesome. We had an awesome time."

On Tuesday, Borel was in demand at a media luncheon at Madison Square Garden. On Thursday, he'll ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Friday will be a day for taking it easy, Funk said. "We'll jog in Central Park," she said.

Borel has been a guest of Jay Leno and Letterman during this Triple Crown season. The jockey traveled to California on Preakness week to appear on "The Tonight Show."

Borel wouldn't be drawn into a comparison of Leno and Letterman.

"They're both about the same," he said.

Known for coolness on the track, Borel showed his nerves before appearing on the talk shows, Funk said.

"(For) Leno, he was pacing," Funk said. "(For) Letterman, he was a little more relaxed, because he knew what to expect. But he was still tapping his foot.

"Anything that doesn't involve horses is boring to him. He didn't know who Jay Leno was, or David, and no offense to them. He wakes up at 4 in the morning and goes to bed at 8 at night. That's who he is. He rides all day long.

"He doesn't stay up late enough to know who those guys are. He watches race replays if he watches anything.

He's a horseback rider."