Three-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel was arrested Wednesday night in Hot Springs, Ark., for driving while intoxicated, according to the Daily Racing Form.
The 54-year-old was booked early Wednesday evening and later released on a $1,000 bond.
This is Borel's second DWI incident in the past three years, having been charged for same in Southern Indiana in 2019. In Arkansas, reports DRF, “a second-offense DWI within five years of the first results in at least seven days or up to a year in jail, though a judge can waive jail time for 'good cause' and order community service instead.”
Ensconced in the Hall of Fame in 2013, Borel last rode at Churchill Downs on May 21, riding two trainees for his wife, Renay Borel. He won the third race aboard Jack Van Berg, and finished second in the sixth with Bebop Shoes. Thus far this year, Borel has ridden four winners from 31 starters, primarily at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs.
Weather was no friend on Thursday to Canterbury Park which had three $50,000 turf stakes scheduled. Relentless rain in Shakopee that began in the early morning hours and continued into late afternoon forced those stakes races to be transferred from the soaked grass course to a sloppy main track resulting in numerous scratches in the Brooks Fields, Minnesota HBPA Distaff and Honor the Hero Stakes.
Best Kept Secret and jockey Kelsi Harr led a four-horse field gate to wire in the one-mile Minnesota HBPA Distaff, holding off defending champion Beach Flower. The victory provided jockey Kelsi Harr with her first stakes win. Best Kept Secret is trained by Robert Cline and owned by Tracy Hersman.
“This is a great way to start the meet. We backed off on her after Oaklawn,” Cline said. “I was worried we didn't have her tight enough. It showed in the last sixteenth [of a mile].”
Harr sent Best Kept Secret to the front, setting comfortable fractions early. At the top of the stretch the 2 1/2 length lead began to diminish as Beach Flower gained ground.
“She was drifting out and I could hear [Beach Flower] coming,” Harr said.
Best Kept Secret had just enough left to hold on to win by a head. She paid $2.60 as the prohibitive favorite.
Lord Dragon took advantage of a quick pace set by favorite Hieronymus and Tut's Revenge, closing in the stretch to win the one-mile Brooks Fields Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths. Rider Ruben Fuentes and Lord Dragon survived a claim of foul by the rider of Tut's Revenge, the second-place finisher, after bumping between those two and Hieronymus in deep stretch. The stewards ruled there would be no change in the order of finish. Lord Dragon, trained by Chris Richard and owned by Jason Totaram, paid $9.60.
Drena's Star, the 3/5 favorite, won the five-furlong Honor the Hero Stakes by 2 1/2 lengths for trainer Robertino Diodoro and owners Randy Marriot, Clayton Weist and Rick Weist. Lindey Wade guided the winner along the rail to victory, returning $3.40.
Nearly a month since his last mount – and after traveling to Peru to mourn the loss of his father – Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado will return to the saddle Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
“It happened suddenly,” said Prado of the death of his father, Jose. “I went to see him in the hospital, but he passed away before I could get there.”
Prado, one of 12 children, said returning to Peru has brought back a lot of memories, feelings, and appreciation.
“Everything I know I learned from him,” said Prado of his father, an assistant trainer and groom. “He was very dedicated to his horses, and I learned to love and respect horses through him.
“When you go back you start thinking, especially when you start opening boxes of memories. Your mind starts to go back, and you think about everything that has happened in your life. You realize in order to achieve success sometimes you have to risk something…you pay the price of missing parents and family. But maybe I would have missed more if I didn't take the chance.”
Prado returns Saturday with two mounts for trainer Timothy Hamm. In the second race, Prado rides the debuting 2-year-old colt Cloud Play, a son of Into Mischief bred and owned by Patricia Pavlish. In the fifth, a maiden claiming event on the turf, Prado rides Mission Brief.
Prado, who is represented by agent Cliff Hopmans, is three wins shy of 7,100 and is ranked eighth all-time in wins. The 53-year-old is 45 wins shy of surpassing Chris McCarron for seventh. Prado, who makes his home in South Florida, says he is looking forward to getting back in the saddle.
“I feel good, physically and mentally,” he said. “My kids want me to stop, but I like what I'm doing. I feel a passion for the game, and I love winning and riding.”
Maryland-based jockey Xavier Perez is closing in on his 1,000th career victory, not that the popular and personable rider needs a reminder.
“I've been counting,” Perez, 33, said. “I told my wife, 'Look I'm getting close. It's coming. It's coming.' She was like, 'Don't start thinking about it.' So I said, 'I'm superstitious and I'm going to count it because I've been counting since I had 50 left and it's been working out for me.”
According to Equibase statistics, the count stands at 995 wins with mounts in four of nine races when live action returns to historic Pimlico Race Course Friday to kick off a Memorial Day weekend program that includes a special holiday card Monday, May 31. Perez also had one mount in Delaware Park's 10th race finale Wednesday.
Perez would be the second jockey to reach 1,000 wins in Maryland this year, following Carol Cedeno Jan. 2 at Laurel Park. Perez and Cedeno grew up together in Puerto Rico and were classmates at the country's famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica, graduating in 2006 and beginning their professional careers in 2007.
“We are childhood friends. It meant a lot to me that she got that milestone, and now that I'm getting close to it I'm getting anxious. I just want to do it,” Perez said. “A thousand wins is a big milestone. It means a lot for every rider in the country and the world.”
Perez rode the winter and spring of 2007 in Puerto Rico before coming to the U.S. that summer, registering his first career winner aboard Danger Quest Aug. 25, 2007 at Charles Town, where another former classmate, Arnaldo Bocachica, had urged him to start.
“He is one of my best friends and he contacted me when I started riding. He told me he was talking to his agent and was telling him about me,” Perez said. “He said I didn't have to bring anything, just my tack. I had a place to stay and a fresh start. That meant a lot. I'm blessed that he's in my life. He's been an amazing brother and amazing friend to me.”
Represented by agent J.D. Brown, Perez rode 3 ½ years at Charles Town – winning the $500,000 West Virginia Breeders' Cup Classic in 2010 with 57-1 long shot Sea Rescue – before moving to Maryland at the start of 2011. That fall, he won a total of 32 races for 20 different trainers at Laurel with an average win mutuel of $14.75.
The first big horse of Perez's career was Susan Wantz's Dance to Bristol, trained by Ollie Figgins III. During the winter, spring and summer of 2013 they won seven consecutive races including the Skipat at Pimlico, Bed o'Roses (G3) at Belmont Park, and Honorable Miss (G2) and Ballerina (G1) at Saratoga – the jockey's first graded triumphs. They would end the year finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita.
Perez's most memorable ride came earlier that year, gaining national attention for a mid-April trip aboard Spicer Cub that saw the gelding blow Pimlico's far turn while on the lead, then bolt suddenly to the outside fence and around the parked starting gate before making a mad dash to the wire and finishing second by a nose. Perez lost both his irons in the process.
“That pushed me to have the campaign that I had. After Spicer Cub, a lot of trainers and owners were asking for me, and me and my agent were really busy. We were going to New York, Monmouth Park, Philadelphia, Colonial Downs, Charles Town. We were riding everywhere on the East Coast. It was a great year,” Perez said. “Still people talk about it. It makes me feel good. I got famous for something that was crazy. It was a jump start for me.”
Perez finished 2013 with 133 wins and $3.8 million in purse earnings, both of which remain career highs. He won his last graded-stakes with Bandbox in the 2014 General George (G3) at Laurel, and in recent years has been part of a formidable team with trainer John 'Jerry' Robb that has put him aboard multiple stakes winners Anna's Bandit and Street Lute as well as Anna's Bandit's 2-year-old half-sister, Bandits Warrior, a debut winner May 23 at Pimlico.
Street Lute has raced 10 times with seven wins, six in stakes, and Perez has been aboard for each of her last seven races including five of her stakes victories. Anna's Bandit owns 17 wins from 36 starts and Perez has accounted for 14 of her wins and 10 of her 11 stakes triumphs, riding in 30 of her last 31 races.
“Dance to Bristol was a special horse to me because it gave me my first graded races,” Perez said. “I didn't have the chance to get on her in the morning like I do with these three mares. I'm there at 5:30 in the morning with Jerry's horses. I take my time with Anna. I take my time with Street Lute. I take my time with Bandits Warrior, and it's paying off. It means so much to me to get the chance to ride such amazing animals.”
Perez had 58 wins in Maryland in a coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2020, 41 of them in 157 starts (26 percent) for Robb – the most of any jockey-trainer combination on the year – including Robb's 2,000th career victory with Stroll Smokin at Laurel. This year they are 19-for-63 (30 percent) together at Laurel and Pimlico.
“He's at the barn every morning, he's getting on them, he knows the horses. I think that means a lot, especially with young horses,” Robb said. “He gets on all the horses. He doesn't get on them all every day, but he gets on all of them at one time or another and he knows them. I think that plays a big role in it.”
Other top horses for Perez have included multiple stakes winners Sensible Lady and Talk Show Man and 2015 Maryland Million Distaff winner Lionhearted Lady. Perez's mounts have earned more than $25.6 million in purses.
“It would mean so much if I get to do it in Maryland, because the people in Maryland have been so great to me,” Perez said. “I have to say thanks to all the trainers that have supported me, riding me the 11 wonderful years I've been in Maryland. My agent has always been right there with me keeping me on the right path. He knows me well. Jerry and the whole team, they've been so amazing to me. They are like family to me. Me and my wife are so blessed and thankful to have such great people around us. I hope it stays like that for a while.”
Perez credits his wife, Jessica, for helping his maturity on and off the track. They met in 2009 when she was ponying the horse he was riding to the starting gate at Colonial Downs and have been together since.
“Thank God I have my wife beside me, 24-7. She's always supported me and she never lets me get too down when I have bad days,” Perez said. “It's been a great journey. There's been ups and downs, but there's been more ups than downs and I'm just grateful for that.”
