Horse Racing Is Great, I Think

Suddenly, I'm into horse racing.

I find myself wondering how many cowboy hats Bennie "Chip" Woolley owns, and whether Mr. Ed was faster than Trigger. This all came out of nowhere, just like Mine That Bird during the Kentucky Derby.

Get the picture? I'm sure you do.

Courtesy of me (along with a whole bunch of other folks), the Kentucky Derby had its highest television ratings in 17 years. And, yes, I know. The crowd was significantly off at Pimlico for the Preakness, the second of the Triple Crown races. Only 78,000 spectators showed up compared to the usual number of more than 100,000. It's just that the weather was crummy in Baltimore that day, and track officials did their version of ripping the lips off the face of your average racing fan by instituting a ban against bringing your own booze to the place.

That said, NBC's ratings were up 27 percent for the Preakness.

As for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, well, history says it will draw about half of its normal viewership since no Triple Crown is on the line.

I'll watch, though. I'm hooked. For one, Calvin Borel is galloping for his personal Triple Crown. He is trying to become the first jockey ever to capture all three races in the same year on different horses.

Come to think of it, I'm not hooked on horse racing. I'm hooked on the wonderfully cocky ways of Borel, the pint-sized Joe Namath who boldly predicted that he'll ride Mine That Bird to victory on Saturday. He pushed that same gelding from last to first during their 50-1 run for the roses at the Kentucky Derby. In between, Borel took the horse that he normally rides to a Pimlico victory. I'm talking about Rachel Alexandra, the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years.

No wonder I'm hooked.

How can anybody not be?

"Yeah, no question," said John Asher, 53, a Kentucky native, which means he automatically is into hoops and horses. Not only that, since Asher attended his first Kentucky Derby in 1967, he has been up close and personal with the sport as everything from a fan to a journalist. He currently is entering his second decade in charge of communications at Churchill Downs.

Said Asher, "The personalities are always a big factor in thoroughbred racing, and there always are a lot of charming stories and a lot of real characters, but I do think that this year in particular, with Calvin Borel as the center piece and with two remarkable horses in Mine That Bird, the longshot who got it done on Derby Day, and the filly Rachel Alexandra who may prove to be the best horse in the world by the end of the year, it keeps everybody interested in what's happening tomorrow at Belmont Park."

You know what isn't happening. Rachel Alexandra isn't racing, because she already has sprinted out of her mind for the past month. In addition to Rachel Alexandra barely holding off (who else?) Mine that Bird in the Preakness, she smoked her filly competition in the Kentucky Oaks by 20 ¼ lengths.

With no Rachel Alexandra in the Belmont, Borel was free to return to Mine That Bird, which was great for us. The same goes for the story of Woolley, the trainer who joined exercise rider Charlie Figueroa in dragging Mine That Bird behind them in a trailer from New Mexico to Kentucky to participate in their first Derby.

The same goes for all of the owners of Rachel Alexandra and Mine that Bird who allowed Borel to switch back and forth between their horses during this Triple Crown season without ugly drama.

The same goes for Borel, period.

"It's the personality and the enthusiasm that he shows, and people really connect to that, and maybe they envy it a little, that somebody can love their job that much and work all those years and see their dreams come true," said Asher, referring to Borel, a 42-year-old bundle of joy before, during and after rides. He comes from an impoverished background in Louisiana. Although he first rode out of necessity at age 8, he was considered only a good jockey -- until recently. Now Borel is THE jockey after taking Street Sense to a Kentucky Derby title two years ago before this year's success. He was scheduled to appear on David Letterman's show Friday night after guest shots in recent weeks with Jay Leno and on Good Morning America.

This is fun. Horsing racing is fun.

Whether this feeling for me lasts beyond Borel, Mine That Bird and Rachel Alexander, only the ghost of Silver knows.

Terence Moore is a national columnist and commentator for FanHouse. He is a frequent panelist on "Rome Is Burning," an ESPN show hosted by Jim Rome, that is seen Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM ET. Moore spent more than three decades working for major newspapers, including 26 years as an award-winning sports columnist for the San Francisco Examiner and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He resides in Atlanta.