Taking the Horses to the People
Calvin Borel has won three of the last five runnings of the Kentucky Derby … but it’s his brother who may have made the biggest impact on the sport Wednesday morning.
There is a lot of talk about why horse racing is failing in the public relations arena, but what no one has mentioned is the good will that horsemen generate to counterbalance the focus on drugs and other woes.
Despite the insular language and isolationalist mentality of many in the game, there are those who realize horse racing has nothing if it doesn’t t have the horse — and (intentionally or otherwise) they are doing something about it.
Go to any track for afternoon racing and you’ll see the pony horses lined up in the tunnel with children (and adults) petting them between races. Then there’s Cecil Borel.
Derby week at Churchill Downs is hectic: there is a huge crowd every morning, the news media are out in full force, there is a buzz in the air, and horses are everywhere. Much of the crowd is packed along the rail, hoping to catch a glimpse of the next Secretariat.
While his younger brother Calvin was breaking from the gate in a drill aboard the Tim Glyshaw-trained Evanscourt, Cecil was ponying his charge Condurre the wrong way up the outside fence. Laughing and chatting with the crowd as they strolled toward the winner’s circle, both Cecil Borel and his exercise rider were quietly making the sport accessible to a public that may never have experienced a racehorse up close.
But what was most remarkable? That on the way back to the barn, Cecil stopped at every single box and allowed people to touch not only his pony, but Condurre as well. There are about 50 boxes between Sections 118 and 114 along the rail, and each had probably 10 people jammed in to get a better look. So 500 people were exposed to the sport from an angle that did not involve a single wagering dollar.
It didn’t matter that Condurre, a bay gelding, was a well-bred claiming horse who would run for a $30,000 tag later that afternoon. People were drawn by the beauty of the animal. Some had peppermints, others just an open hand to pet with. Most were children, and the look on their faces was one of sheer joy. They may well be sharing the “day I went to the track and touched a real racehorse” story with their own kids in 30 years, perhaps while planning a trip to watch Kentucky Derby morning workouts and passing on the legacy.
Everyone in business needs to make money, but when will those in thoroughbred racing focus on what really matters in the sport? Horsemen understand that without the animal there is no wagering, no sport, no reason to race anything but cars and pigs at state fairs.
Between Calvin rolling through the stretch in his gate drill and Cecil playing ambassador, the Borel brothers touched the lives of families who thought they were just coming to see a few pretty ponies. Instead, the game no doubt got brand-new, life-long fans.
