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133RD KENTUCKY DERBY

May 5, 2007

CHURCHILL DOWNS, KENTUCKY

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, Calvin Borel, winning jockey of Kentucky Derby 133 aboard Street Sense. Go ahead, give him a hand there. (Applause)
Anybody who has known Calvin over the years know he's the hardest working man in horse racing; he's up at 5:00 in the morning mucking stalls, working horses in the morning.
Calvin, what are your thoughts?
CALVIN BOREL: One thing my brother always told me, hard work always pays off, be kind to people and treat them the way you want to be treated. I'm thankful for Mr. Carl and the owners to give me the opportunity to ride a colt like that. I thank my agent for sticking with me this long, and we're good as a team. We've been up and down, but nothing is stopping us. It's a one-way street. We've got to get to the top some way and I love to win. That's the name of the game.

Q. The last year has been amazing for you, and now here you are with Street Sense winning the Kentucky Derby, so your career is really flying right now but this horse is something special for you.
CALVIN BOREL: Yes, sir. He's the best three-year-old I've ever been on in my life. He's the kind of horse, he'll do anything for you. He's very push-button. He'll put you in a spot where you want to be at any time and then relax, you know, so I really don't know how good he is. Because I can, 7/8-pole, put me in a spot there and relax he's unbelievable.

Q. You popped out of the gate and dropped back to almost last; tell us about your trip.
CALVIN BOREL: Well, he broke pretty sharp. You know, I just wanted to get over a little bit because the speed horse was right on the inside of me and I think I had one horse run by that time and when we headed down the back side, I actually, I knew they were going pretty quick so I backed him up a little bit, let two other horses go by me, this is about half a lane and I just sat on him there until about the 3/8 pole and I started biding my time between horses and by the quarter pole, I stayed on the fence until about the quarter pole and I went around one horse and then after that, you know, it was just a matter of how far he went, because I knew when I asked him he'd go.

Q. People were so conscious but coming up the rail with this horse; were you concerned about going in there or that you were going to get through?
CALVIN BOREL: No. He wasn't on the rail all the way. I went around two horses, I went around one. You know, he'll run anywhere. I mean, just as long as we're on the racetrack. The colt, he does not have to be there. Down the lane, he wasn't off the fence. I got him way off the fence. You know, the crowd and everything, he started going in a little bit -- but he does not have to be on the fence.

Q. You've had a lot of success here at this track and have not gotten as many shots at the big races; how does it feel to win a Kentucky Derby where you've had so much success?
CALVIN BOREL: That's what I was saying, I would like to thank Carl and the owners for giving me the opportunity to show the talent that I have to ride a horse like this. You know, he's a great horse, and I really and truly don't know how good he is because he is going forward, ever since a two-year-old he's gone forward. He's never gone backwards. So I really don't know how good he is.

Q. Coming into this race, a lot of the people looked at the two preps and wondered if that would be enough, but now that you've won, maybe the two preps swing to your advantage. Do you see it that way, heading into the Belmont Stakes?
CALVIN BOREL: The two preps I thought were perfect for him. Like Carl said, the first time we run him, he won and he needed it and we run him in the Bluegrass but he just don't like the Polytrack, I don't know why, but he doesn't. I've been on him on three times there and he's a totally different horse when he gets on the main track, and the way the pace set, it's very hard to confuse the horse.
I had him, you know, by three lengths off the pace and like 26, 29, 116, he finished, but it really got him confused. A horse bumped me down the lane, he was on the wrong lead about three times. He had a lot going into the last race.

Q. I was wondering, how many people would have been watching the first race as you were riding in Louisiana when you were eight years old, how many people would have been in the crowd and how loud would they have been and how old were you when you first started thinking about winning this race?
CALVIN BOREL: There's a bunch of them, millions of them and had I a few of them come here today. Some of my family came here today but from back home when I was riding in the bush track from eight years old, you wouldn't imagine; I will have a lot of phone calls.
I always dreamed about winning this race. You know, winning this race and winning the Breeders Cup, it's always a jockey's dream, no matter who you are, it's always a jockey's dream.
You have to have the work ethic, the talent, and the owners and trainers to put you on good horses and an agent to work with you to get you there. I was fortunate enough to have a brother that pushed me and pushed me and made sure I got there.

Q. Could you talk about your brother, Cecil, and the long relationship you have had with him and what he's been through?
CALVIN BOREL: You know, like I tell you, I went to the eighth grade and I broke my knee. He raised me after that. We had about six head of horses at Delta and it was sun-up to sundown; hard work. I'd win 17 races a win and maybe make $3,000. That's how the purses were. But I thought I would never see another poor day in my life winning those kind of races, but it showed me a lot so I appreciate what I have right now.

Q. I don't think you quite understood the question. I was wondering how many people would have been watching those match races when you were eight years old? How many people were at the track and how loud was it -- how much different it was to the Kentucky Derby.
CALVIN BOREL: It's a big difference. You might go to the bush track, you might have like a hundred people, you know, and that's about it. This is unbelievable, the crowd. And I really appreciate the fans, you know, because I'm a very low-key guy and I -- you've got to have the fans to be with you.

Q. You seemed to start celebrating even before the race was over with. Have you done that before and what was going through your mind when you looked behind you?
CALVIN BOREL: Yes, sir, I looked under my arm and seen we was two or three lengths in front and there was no way he was going to beat me and I knew then. It's the greatest moment of your life to win the Kentucky Derby in front.

Q. After you won the Breeders Cup, I'm assuming that many very famous jockeys, or at least their agents were bidding -- to knock you off the horse; did you worry about that?
CALVIN BOREL: No, sir, I never worry about that because Mr. Carl and the owners have been so loyal to me. I rode for Carl a long time and he's been very loyal to me. He's the type of guy, he always told me, you know, just take what they give you.
Now, you know, I might do a mistake and he'll tell me, and we'll work together as training horses. I love to ride for him because it's my style of riding, selling the horse and making him finish.
No, me and Mr. Carl, we've been very close since eight, nine years ago, and he's helped me a lot and he's a great trainer.

Q. When you were making that move on the turn, could you tell that -- were you holding your breath at all? Could you tell the path was pretty much there for you?
CALVIN BOREL: It was pretty wide open. The horses were getting tired. They were starting to drift away instead of coming to one another; they were starting to drift out. So I was pretty comfortable.

Q. What did it mean for you to have Queen Elizabeth up there watching this accomplishment?
CALVIN BOREL: It means everything in the world. Well, it's the greatest thing in the world to me. I never dreamed I'd be here.

Q. Before the Breeders Cup, or maybe a couple of days out, you told your agent, buy a suit, come to the races and pretty much predict a victory. Did you tell Jerry to buy a suit or be at the races?
CALVIN BOREL: When I worked for him for the first time at the Breeders Cup, I did, because I knew he was peaking as a two-year-old and I didn't think there was nothing in the world to beat him. And even the last work that I worked him when he went up 101, he showed me galloping out when I wanted to see and I knew if he showed up, it would have took a good horse to beat him. He's an incredible good horse, believe me you.

Q. Is your brother here, and have you talked to him yet? What did you say to each other?
CALVIN BOREL: No, he just -- well, he went back home. He run a filly in the fourth race and he had to go take care of him.
You know, thank him for getting me here. He's everything in my life and my daddy died about three years ago, and like he told me, he said, "That one's for daddy," and it is, because he got us there.

Q. You work in the mornings more than others; are you always going to do that or is that ever going to change?
CALVIN BOREL: No, it will change. I don't know -- I mean, you know, I don't mind doing it. It's a family thing. I love helping my brother because he did a lot for me and it shows me a lot about horses. I'm a jockey but I know a lot about horses and I think that's why Mr. Carl likes me so much, because I can tell him a lot more about a horse than some riders do.
I think he really appreciates that.

Q. Are they going to give you the morning off?
CALVIN BOREL: I think I'm going to take the morning off.

Q. Let's get that jinx question out of the way, the Breeders Cup winner has now come back to win the Derby for the first time since 1979, this is a very special horse, is it not?
CARL NAFZGER: Let's just be honest, the horse, he's taken us everywhere. Mr. Tafel and I, since the last summer in the Maiden race in Chicago, I said, Calvin, make him beat us. And after that we talked and we said, "Now the horse takes us where it's going," and man, has he taken us on a trip?

Q. A couple of years ago you were talking about certainly scaling back, thinking about retirement and here you are, a horse like this comes into your career at a fairly late stage. What does this mean to you at this point to win this race and have a horse like this?
CARL NAFZGER: I can really afford to retire now. (Laughter).

Q. Mr. Tafel, this is the first horse you're breed, you're a champion; what does this mean to you after your long career in racing?
JAMES TAFEL: Well, this is the epitome of anybody in the horse business or racing career is to have a horse that's won a Kentucky Derby.
Earlier this year, matter of fact, last year, Carl said, "Jim, we're going to win the Kentucky Derby." Partner, you made it come true.
So what's it mean? It's difficult to explain. I've been around this game for 25 years, or sport or business or whatever you want to classify it as. And I think Jerry Bailey said, this is the most difficult race in the world to win. Because you've got 20 horses in there, and a lot of things can happen, bad things can happen to good horses.
Fortunately Calvin kept us out of trouble today and got us across that finish line first. So it's a real thrill, which is probably a trite term, but it's hard to describe. And Carl's used to this, see, and I'm not.

Q. Does it mean more because you bred the horse as well?
JAMES TAFEL: That makes it particularly sweet, it really does, because some of my friends were not too enthusiastic about the breeding because he was an unproven stallion; he went to an unproven broodmare. So that is a bunch of nonsense which has produced Street Sense. (Laughter).

Q. Apparently you had some reaction on that mating there, what was your thought about the mating with Street Drive?
CARL NAFZGER: Mr. Tafel has a hilly bell (ph) to go over the mares and we've all got suggestions. But when we got down to Bedazzled, he showed the fire right quick. He said, guys think what you want to, do what you want to, I've got enough bolts, we're going to -- so that was a bolt right there. (Laughter).

Q. You seemed very much at peace in the last two or three weeks coming into the race that everything was going just as you wanted it with this horse. How confident did you feel coming into this morning?
CARL NAFZGER: Truthfully, you're always 1 to 19 when you go in that gate, and not anybody can really tell what's going to happen and how is it going to unfold.
But the thing that I was confident about was simple. This horse has never ran a bad race. He's done everything he's supposed to. Like I said earlier, and I mean seriously, this horse took us here. Not only did he take us here, he took us here today. I've got all the faith in the world in this horse and I can't say enough about him.
When everybody said two races, to me, that was just -- there wasn't anything to it. There was two races, because the horse had already had five, had already learned his lessons and it was a matter of getting fit and getting his timing. And, okay, he's taken us on a great trip and he took us here and he took us there today.

Q. Any concern when you saw him next to last in the backstretch?
CARL NAFZGER: No. Calvin has a clock in his head that is unreal, especially after you looked at the first quarter and 00:22:04

Q. Is your relationship with Mr. Tafel one of the reasons why you're still in semi-retirement; can you talk about your association with him?
CARL NAFZGER: It's very simple, Mr. Tafel and Mr. Smith have been together -- when the Gettner's Table (ph) came in in 1982 and Mr. Smith came in in 1984; you've got friendships, you've got integrity, you've got good business people that taught me a lot about business. You have a great relationship.
When Mr. Tafel retires and Mr. Smith retires, I'll definitely be retired.
JAMES TAFEL: (Laughing).

Q. For good luck's sake, were you doing any announcing as the horses were coming down the stretch?
CARL NAFZGER: When I seen him make a move and get clear, I said, "We're clear, we're clear, it's up to him now, it's all his now." There was only one horse with three lengths in front of him and when we split those two horses clear, it was up to him. I was elated.

Q. I'd like to ask the same question of you that was just asked of Carl with your partnership overall of these years with Carl, and you know, a lot of owners change trainers all the time, you've been with the same guy; can you talk about that relationship a little bit?
JAMES TAFEL: Well, I think the thing that's developed in that relationship is that I know what Carl's job is, and he knows what my job is, and we respect our respective positions.
So he may challenge this, but I guess on occasions that I have attempted to train the horse, not this horse, but we've been together a long time. You know, one of the things that John Nerud, who kind of got Carl started and I got to know later on Tartan Farm and Dr. Fager, etc. And he said, "Tafel, one of the things I respect about you is you're not jumping around from trainer to trainer looking for some magic formula."
And we've had some lean times. But we've hung in there.
CARL NAFZGER: No, it's just been a great relationship because any racetrack stable of racehorses are going to have lean times. We're going to go through some bad times and good times and that's what really tests you, whether you're really putting your program together right or not.
Just like I said, I was ready to step back, but I won't step back until Mr. Smith and Mr. Tafel retires and when they do that, then I'm retired, too.
I've got one more thing to say. Tafel says we both know our place. I create the bills; he pays them.
JAMES TAFEL: And I don't expect the day rate to go up on Monday. (Laughter)

Q. You come from Pittsburgh; what neighborhood did you grow up in and did you follow racing growing up and what high school did you go to?
JAMES TAFEL: The first Kentucky Derby that I saw was in Lew Worsham's living room, and that had to be like 1953, '54 or '55 and I had never seen a Derby on television before. And Lew was the golf pro at Oakmont, which has the U.S. Open this year. And Lew had won the U.S. open in 1947, and it was just the two of us. He had a little patch of mint right outside the door and goes out and cuts a couple off and we had a Mint Julip together and that's kind of my exposure to thoroughbred racing at that point.
So as a matter of fact, I kind of was dragged into the thoroughbred business by a dear friend of mine in Illinois, and just love it, really do. When you've had the good fortune to have good horses with a good trainer and a disciplined program, what could be better than this?
I grew up in the South Hills and I moved to O'Hare Township which is right near Fox Chapel. I went to the University of Pittsburgh. I don't know how I got through, but I did. (Laughter).

Q. You mentioned having a good friend in Illinois, who has that person you referred to?
JAMES TAFEL: The guy's name was Tiny Welsh. He was the president of Studebaker Worthington which was a pretty big conglomerate. This is after Studebaker got out of the car business.
Tiny died in 1984 I think. We were playing golf at Pine Valley and he had a heart attack. And I hope I don't have one today after this excitement.

Q. Carl, first prospects potential for the other Triple Crown races, and does this mean you're going to write another book?
CARL NAFZGER: The first one was so good, I don't think I need to.
No, the first one is in the third printing now. It's selling good. It probably will get a rewrite. It needs to. I said everything I could say there about the development of the horse and the structure of the business. Definitely have to add a Street Sense chapter and a Banshee Breeze chapter.
Prospects, I don't even want to get into that. Tomorrow we'll meet and talk.

Q. My question did pertain to the Preakness, maybe you can answer this, because he does have the two preps going in, does that work to your advantage assuming you want to go in and take the next challenge?
CARL NAFZGER: I think it would definitely work to my advantage. We've got two, we've got three races, and we've been beat in one of those this year. As I know horse racing, they will dig up another five or six that we haven't seen yet.

Q. Did you say when last year you told him that you would win the Derby?
CARL NAFZGER: Truthfully it was when the horse got to relaxing in the race and when he ran the race at the Blue Grass, that's where we -- not the Blue Grass but the Breeders Kadala (ph), if you remember that day, he dropped about 12 off the pace, when he kicked him, boom, he went to the lead. And then he backed off a bit, but that was his nature. But it don't seem like he's backing off the bit in the lead anymore.
Then we knew we had a good horse. Whether he was good enough then -- but you say, the horse never makes a mistake, is what I'm trying to tell you.

Q. Can you tell us when you bought your first horse and can you elaborate on your relationship with Dogwood and Cot Campbell?
JAMES TAFEL: The first horse I bought was a horse we called Hipshot because I bought him without having him vetted; just on his looks. And Carl said, "Are you nuts?" I had no horse man advising me, and it was truly a hipshot.
What was the other part of the question? Cot Campbell. Cot is a dear friend of mine and I became an investor in Dogwood Stable, and we had the good fortune to have a horse called Nasapore (ph) that Cot had purchased in England. And the horse went on to win a Grade One Stake which I think was the Rothman, up in Toronto. And then subsequently, it was sold as a stallion either in New Zealand or Australia and was very successful down there.
So Cot and I are very good friends, and I tell him he's my mentor. And he is, he's a good friend of mine and taught me a lot.

Q. You talked about what you were saying down the stretch to Mr. Tafel. Did you ever consider throwing in an "I love you, Mr. Tafel"?
CARL NAFZGER: Truthfully he already knows that. (Laughter)?

Q. Will you take the horse to the track tomorrow morning? I know he'll want to take a picture.
CARL NAFZGER: Is the track even open tomorrow? 5:30 to 7:00? I might not be up yet. More than likely he'll go out and jog a mile like he always did after a race. Let's see if he cleans up his feet tonight and see where we are.
We've got a good while to regroup everything now. We've got two weeks. He's ready. We just need to tune him up and we'll go from there.

Q. You're by nature a confident guy; is that your nature? Have you always been that way or is it just because of this horse?
CARL NAFZGER: Basically a lot of it -- one time I was a very negative person. I've learned that life is -- don't get any better. I think the greatest thing I ever said was, "If you don't believe in God, study my life. It's been a miracle."
This horse makes you a little bit positive but you have to keep things in perspective. It's a racehorse and when you race -- great football teams get beat and great horses get beat, too. But yes, this is an exceptional horse, very exceptional horse.

Q. From the Breeders Cup Juvenile to today, does it seem like a very long time that you've had to wait to try to do what nobody else has done or did it fly by or what kind of time does it seem like from that point?
JAMES TAFEL: An eternity. You know, it's a distinct and unique pleasure to be the breeder of this horse, but it's also very satisfying to break the jinx of no horse winning the Derby after the Juvenile Championship.
And the other thing is that -- and maybe John knows the statistics on this, but it's my understanding, there's only been two horses that went off as the favorites since Spectacular Bid to win the Derby. Is that accurate?
THE MODERATOR: Yes, Pegasus and Smarty Jones.
CARL NAFZGER: Can I ask you one question? What do y'all think about that jinx now? (Laughter)

End of FastScripts

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133RD KENTUCKY DERBY

May 5, 2007

Calvin Borel

Carl Nafzger

James Tafel