Borel Breaks Wrist in Fall at Churchill Downs

Jockey Calvin Borel, leading rider during Churchill Downs' current fall meet, sustained multiple fractures to his right wrist and was scheduled to undergo surgery at Norton Audubon Hospital in Louisville, Ky., after being thrown from his horse in the fifth race on Churchill's Thanksgiving Day card Nov. 23.

According to Borel's agent, Jerry Hissam, the 40-year-old jockey will remain hospitalized for an undetermined length of time as doctors work to repair the damage done when Borel was thrown as his mount fell after sustaining a fatal injury to his left front ankle during a 1 1/8 mile turf event for maidens.

Borel was immediately transported to Norton Audubon, where x-rays revealed the fractured wrist. Pew, a 3-year-old gelded son of Pulpit owned by Janis Whitham and trained by Ian Wilkes, was euthanized.

Borel, a native of St. Martin, La., piloted James Tafel's Street Sense to a record-smashing 10-length victory in the $2 million Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I) Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs. On Nov. 23 he was scheduled to ride Ermine, who later won the Falls City Handicap (gr. II),, but was replaced by jockey Eddie Castro.

"Obviously, we're not too happy right now," Hissam said from Hot Springs, Ark., where he was spending the holiday with his family. "We lost the mount on Ermine and Calvin only had two days left to ride before he took a vacation until Oaklawn, but he didn't get hurt any worse. That's the bright side; there'll be another day to fight on."

Borel currently leads the Churchill Downs jockeys' colony by a margin of 23-20 over Shaun Bridgmohan, who is scheduled to ride 20 mounts in the remaining two days of Churchill's fall meet.