The Calvin Borel Interview

Lone Star Park Track Conditions Spring 2007: Sloppy. Muddy. Off Turf. Crappy.

Lone Star Park Track Conditions on Lone Star Million Day, May 28th: Muddy. Wet Turf. 16,196 People. Free Lawn Chairs. Rain. Calvin Borel. Go Go. Bob and John. Best Horse Racing On Planet Earth.

Okay, okay okay. It’s Friday and it’s old news. So before I rehash last weekend’s best events, I’ll toss out a few upcoming picks for those of you looking for a play or two this weekend.

3 – 2 – 11 – 7

That’s my Pick 4 at Hollywood. Or it could be Arlington. Or is it Belmont?

Anyway, last Monday was one of the finest days of racing in Texas. Six stakes races worth $1.1 million. Best horse of the day was the impressive Lady of Venice who ran 23.80 seconds in the final quarter of the Ouija Board Stakes. Best jockey of the day was Garrett Gomez who won three of the six stakes. Best observation of the day was Railbird Roy, who said, “This is a whole lot better than the Texas Rangers.”

Part of the Lone Star Million excitement was an autograph session that included a couple of Triple Crown Notables: jockey Calvin Borel, and trainer Steve Asmussen.

I’m not much of an autograph hound. Come to think of it, I have very few memorabilia lurking around. There are some Cliff Berry goggles that my daughter scored last year and there is a good possibility that I still have my copy of Sports Illustrated with Smarty Jones on the cover (however, do not ask me where this magazine might be located in my house). But to have a chance to actually meet Calvin Borel and Steve Asmussen is what every horseplayer-that-writes-an-insipid-racing-blog-that-rarely-provides-any-factual-information hopes for. I felt this would provide me a tremendous opportunity to ask a question or two in the :43.20 seconds of one-on-one time provided.

When I finally reached Calvin Borel, I offered the obligatory congratulations. And then seizing the moment as he began to sign the photo, which by the way he said was a great photo of him and it should be noted that it was not from the Derby because I called my husband the night before the autograph session and pleaded for his computer-techno-genius to provide me with some kind of photo that I could bring to the autograph session and because my husband is a computer-techno-genius he downloaded a picture of Calvin Borel from God Knows Where taken by I Don’t Know and therefore I cannot publish this photo because I do not have written permission from whoever took the photo, I began my interview:

Me: Did you actually get to touch the Queen? You know, there is some kind of protocol on this whole “touching” matter.
Calvin Borel: Yes. Yes, I did get to the touch the Queen. I got to touch everyone! It was the greatest day of my life!

I was ready to launch quickly into my next question, which was going to be either “Did Carl Natfzger declare his love for you?" or “Who’s your dentist?", however that is when Steve Asmussen horned in on my interview with Calvin Borel.

Steve Asmussen: The Queen, eh? What did she sound like?
Calvin Borel: English

They giggled and tittered another comment or two, back and forth like a couple of schoolboys who had just toilet-papered their gym teacher’s front yard.

And that concluded my Calvin Borel interview.