Author: C.J. Johnsen

By Jennie Rees for Ellis Park HENDERSON, Ky. (Tuesday, July 4, 2017) — A year ago this holiday weekend, Calvin Borel was a visitor on the Churchill Downs backside, his first time at a racetrack since he suddenly retired with little explanation three months earlier at Oaklawn Park. The Hall of Fame jockey said he was just “chilling,” trying to decide what he wanted to do with his life after the relationship with a long-time girlfriend disintegrated. A lot has changed since then. Borel resumed riding last Aug. 27 at Ellis Park, the fans’ love-fest with the jockey picking right up where it left off. If his business was slower to resume, it certainly is picking up speed. In two days of riding at Ellis Park — he missed Saturday’s opener for his induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and did not have a mount Tuesday — he has won three of eight starts with a pair of seconds, including one by a nose. All three wins were horses trained by his long-time friend, Buff Bradley. But here’s the 50-year-old jockey’s life-altering event: His fiancee, Renay Falkner, is pregnant with Borel’s first child, a boy due in late September or early October. He also plans to adopt Falkner’s 2-year-old son, Stephen. Borel estimates he’s known Falkner for 20 years, including when she was an exercise rider for...