Mr. Inside

In sports, we like to label our great moments, give them banner headline stature.

Fans of the 49ers have Dwight Clark and “the Catch.” Steelers fans have “the Immaculate Reception.” UCLA basketball lore went “Coast to Coast” with Tyus Edney and John Elway had “the Drive.”

In the 133rd running of the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, Calvin Borel gave horse racing fans “the Ride.”

Borel was aboard Street Sense, the betting favorite. At the start, the first anybody heard of him, after the usual cavalry charge out of the gate and past the grandstand, was that he was holding steady in 19th place.

There is a photo breakdown in this week’s issue of The Blood-Horse magazine that shows an aerial view of the field at the first turn. Street Sense and Borel were so far back, they didn’t even make the picture.

On the backstretch, there were still 15 horses in front of them, and leader Hard Spun was eight lengths away, with a traffic pattern of horses between them that resembled the 405 Freeway on Friday night.

As they approached the final turn, Borel and Street Sense had improved their position by only two horses.

Unlike anybody who had a wagering ticket on his horse, trainer Carl Nafzger says now that he wasn’t worried. And his faith was in more than his horse.

“The two best things about Calvin Borel are his patience and the clock he has in his head,” Nafzger said.

Borel’s alarm was about to go off. He had bided his time and kept his poise as the rest of the field ran away from him. He had saved ground by staying true to his racing nickname, Calvin Bo-rail. Now, just before the field reached the pole that tells them there is a quarter mile to go in the mile-and-a-quarter Derby, Borel knew it was time.

In front of him, just slightly off the rail, was Doug O’Neill’s Liquidity, ridden by David Flores.

“That was the moment,” O’Neill said. “The race was made right there.”

Although there is some disagreement about this, it is doubtful that Borel could have squeezed past Flores on the left, had Flores stayed where he was. O’Neill said he didn’t think the hole was big enough. Nafzger said it didn’t matter because, had Borel been blocked, he still had time to take Street Sense out and around. O’Neill said it was too late to get home the winner that way.

Nobody will ever know, though, because Borel, with the guts of a pickpocket, suddenly came upon a parting of the Red Sea. Flores, thinking he had enough horse to win and coming up dangerously close to the horse ahead of him on the rail, steered Liquidity just a shade to the right, around Sedgefield, leaving the door open behind him for Borel.

At that moment, Flores unwittingly became a pulling guard for the running back, Borel.

“He went by me like a hurricane,” Flores said. “I thought, ‘Yikes, what was that?’ I remember thinking, ‘Maybe I should grab his tail.’ ”

He couldn’t have reached it. Borel was long gone, zipping between Sedgefield and Liquidity and forcing Flores and Liquidity a bit to the right and nearly into a bump with Curlin. Curlin got clear enough to make a successful run for third place. Liquidity was reduced to a puddle.

“When we moved, I thought I had enough horse to go for it,” Flores said. “Then, when he went by me like that, I thought, ‘OK, maybe we can go get second.’ A few seconds later, I was thinking third. But then I knew, my horse was done.

“Sometimes, when they get passed like that, they lose their confidence.”

The ease with which Borel picked his way through the field and to his eventual 2 1/4 -length victory left some wondering if jockeys communicate during races, if some with less horse under them make way, for reasons of safety, for others with more.

O’Neill said that would never happen in a race the stature of the Kentucky Derby, adding, “Besides, there is too much noise out there for anybody to hear anybody else.”

Alex Solis, who won the Preakness in 1986 aboard Snow Chief and is a Hall of Fame nominee this year, was even more adamant.

“In the Kentucky Derby,” he said, “it is every man for himself.”

Borel agreed that his Derby ride was the trip of a lifetime. “Awesome,” he called it, pointing more to luck than skill.

“I had a ride like this with this horse in the Breeders’ Cup,” he said. “Sometimes, things just open up perfectly in front of you.”

With nine horses in the Preakness, 11 fewer than the Derby, riding through traffic might be less an issue. And Borel is not fearful that other riders, knowing his attraction to the rail, will be inclined to block him.

“I won five races at Churchill this week and three of them were on the rail,” he said.

He also is doing his best to get the spotlight back where he says it belongs.

“You get some of those great trips,” he said, “because a great horse gets you in position for them.”

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Churchill charge

Much has been made of Calvin Borel’s ride in the Kentucky Derby. Some key moments in Street Sense’s move from an also-ran to a Derby winner:

1. Borel and Street Sense patiently ride on the rail near the back of the pack as the field enters the final turn.

2. Street Sense begins a charge on the rail. In front of Borel on the rail is Liquidity, ridden by David Flores.

3. Liquidity, apparently trying to make a move of his own, gives up the rail. Borel seizes the opportunity.

4. Street Sense blows by Liquidity and passes Sedgefield. Only Hard Spun is left to track down in stretch.

Source: NBC, Los Angeles Times