Cross Breeds

Horse racing ??? - how can a jocky just change horses at the last minute?

So I have a question about the Preakness yesterday... The jockey that changed horses to the winning horse, Calvin Borel...how can he just change horses at the last minute?? I mean, doesn't that mess up everyone else? Who was supposed to ride Rachel Alexandra originally and why didn't that jockey have a say in it? Just dont' get how that works. Thanks for any insight. I'm a fan after watching Preakness. What a great race!

Public Comments

1. Borel is Rachel Alexandra's regular rider, that's why he was onboard.
2. Jockey's have agents who work with trainers in which to obtain the jockey's their mounts. The jockey usually pays their agent 10% of their wages earned riding. With that said, Calvin Borel, who rode Mine That Bird to win the Kentucky Derby, was also the regular rider of Rachael Alexandra. He was also her regular rider. He rode her in her win in the Kentucky Oaks (the day before the Kentucky Derby) as well as in her other races. So when you get to a point in which you are the regular rider of two horses who end up getting entered in the same race, the rider is going to have to pick. Borel picked the filly. This happens quite often in everyday horse racing.
3. Rachel Alexandra is the filly Borel has ridden to five straight victories before the Preakness...now six. He rode her in a dominating, 20¼-length victory in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks a couple weeks back. Calvin Borel has always been her only regular rider, so he had/has the choice. She is said to be the best filly anyone has seen in decades, and has proved so by wining Preakness 2009. The last filly to win the Preakness was in 1924, Nellie Morse. Other past filly winners are Winning Colors won the Kentucky Derby in 1988, and Ruffian in 1975. Borel said he isn't into historical comparisons. He only knows she's the best racehorse he's ever sat on, and this is a guy who has won two of the past three Derbies. The Preakness is the second leg of the Triple Crown, The Kentucky Derby being the first leg and the Belmont in 3 weeks will be the third leg. Be sure to watch it since you're new to horse racing. It's a really great and interesting sport.
4. Jockeys are private contractors, not the employees of any particular stable or owner or trainer. While in the UK and Europe a stable may contract with a jockey to ride all their horses, that isn't the usual arrangement here in the United State. Jockeys who ride at the major racetracks in the US (as opposed to smaller tracks or county fairs) employ an agent who works to get them mounts at the track where the jockey rides. While some jockeys have a long-term relationship with a trainer, it's a race-by-race commitment. A trainer can decide that a jockey doesn't "fit" a particular horse in his barn, and hire a different jockey for that horse; a jockey may find that he's offered a mount with a better chance in a big race, and drop a horse he's been riding in order to get the mount on a better one. Calvin Borel did not "change at the last minute." He was the regular rider of Rachel Alexandra, and had said after she won the Oaks that if she were to run in the Preakness, he would ride her. When Jess Jackson bought her and announced that she was going to run in the Preakness, he notified Mine That Bird's owner and trainer that he was going with the filly in plenty of time to allow them to get another rider. If you look at the past performances for Mine That Bird, http://www.drf.com/formulator-web/free-race.go?trackId=PIM&country=USA&raceDate=20090516&dayEvening=D&raceNumber=12#past-performance-race/12, you'll see that Calvin Borel had only ridden Mine That Bird ONCE-- in the Kentucky Derby. On the other hand, Calvin Borel had ridden Rachel Alexandra in her last five starts, including all of her stakes wins. Mine That Bird's owner Mark Allen got all whiney about "I want my jockey back," and made it sound like Calvin Borel was jumping ship on him after a long relationship. That just wasn't so. The connections of Mine That Bird didn't know they were going to go into the Derby until a few days before the race, and they were lucky Borel was available, because jockeys of his caliber usually have a Derby mount weeks before the race. While it may seem unfair that a jockey can jump from one horse to another, it can work the other way, too. If a horse with a great race record loses a race, the trainer and owner can make a scapegoat out of the jockey and give all future rides on that horse to another jockey. It happened to Jean Cruguet, the rider who rode Seattle Slew to the Triple Crown. When Seattle Slew unexpectedly lost the Paterson Handicap to Dr. Patches, Cruguet made some post-race remarks that the horse was short of conditioning. Result: Cruguet fired and Angel Cordero got the mount on Seattle Slew. The jockey has to be named to ride a horse at the time the entries for a race are made, and any change of rider after the entries are taken and post positions drawn requires the permission of the stewards and is usually only made if the jockey is injured, sick, or for some reason is unable to ride.