The Audacity of Calvin Borel

Hey, tomorrow’s scheduled running of the Kentucky Derby is as good an excuse as any to post my favorite highlight from the race ever.

It’s the wild end of the 2009 Derby, and the best way to watch it is probably this slo-mo replay from NBC Sports using an overhead angle. The announcers break down the action nicely so that anyone who doesn’t follow racing regularly — basically, everyone — can understand.

It boils down to one of those against-the-odds sorta moments that sports sometimes produces, a reminder to all of us (if we’re not too cynical to acknowledge a good metaphor) that maybe we could stand to be a little bolder about whatever goals are important to us.

The jockey here, a guy named Calvin Borel, weighs 110 pounds; he’s riding a 50-1 longshot named Mine That Bird; and they’re running way back in the pack through most of the race, as everyone expected at the time. Despite all that, he decides to make a death-defying move through an opening along the inside edge of the track. If anything unexpected happens there — always a possibility amid a fast-moving crowd of large animals — he’ll have to deal with the very unforgiving inside rail that separates the track from the infield.

Crazy.

For a slightly different look, the full-speed version of the race as it originally aired is below. Notice, the announcer refers to the finish as “an impossible ending.”

Actually, no it wasn’t, really. It officially ceased to be impossible the second someone did it. That’s the point.