Calvin Borel makes his living riding the rail. It’s the shortest way around a racetrack, yet few jockeys are as comfortable down there as he is.

Of course, the rail doesn’t mean much if you don’t have a horse good enough underneath you. Borel certainly did in the Kentucky Derby, guiding Super Saver on the short path in the slop to a 2½-length victory, his third in four years.

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So which of these horses is Calvin Borel riding? The one on the rail, of course. That’s where he kept Super Saver in the Kentucky Derby, for his third Derby victory in the last four years. Super Saver will be in the Preakness next Saturday. The Associated Press

Borel won his first Derby in 2007 with a rail-hugging ride aboard the favorite, Street Sense, and his second with a 50-1 long shot, Mine That Bird, last year in a muddy dash from last to first along the rail.

This year wasn’t as dramatic because Super Saver was never worse than sixth in the 1¼-mile race. But Borel did it in his usual style, keeping close to the rail and swinging outside just once to pass Conveyance before zooming right back inside.

“He doesn’t run in the one hole, he runs in the half hole,” said a Hall of Fame trainer, D. Wayne Lukas. “He could paint the fence while he’s going.”

Actually, Borel said, Super Saver wasn’t that close.

“Now, Mine That Bird might have scraped the fence,” he said. “He was all right. I had plenty of room.”

Borel isn’t expected to deviate when he rides Super Saver in the Preakness on May 15, aiming for a victory that would set them up for a Triple Crown attempt.

“He has the talent to do it,” Borel said about a Triple Crown. “It’s hard to say you’re going to win it, but he’s peaking at the right time.”

Bob Baffert, a Hall of Fame trainer, has been burned by “Bo-rail” before. He thought he had his fourth Derby victory last year, but Borel came zooming up the rail, a path Baffert calls the Borel Trail, on Mine That Bird to overtake the front-running Pioneerof the Nile.

“He knows if he gets on top of the rail it’s a big advantage,” Baffert said. “Lots of guys try it but can’t do it. He’s got it mastered. He can get a horse to relax. He’s got really great hands.”

Borel enjoyed his greatest success at Churchill Downs, a track similar to Louisiana Downs, where Borel honed his riding skills and learned to take the shortest way around the track.

He even hugs the rail in the mornings when he’s exercising horses.

“I love to ride the fence,” he said. “You can’t be scared. If I can’t do it my way and get the job done, that’s when I’m going to retire.”

As much as Borel loves it down low, some horses dislike the rail, forcing him out a length or even as far as the middle of the track. But others prefer running with the rail on one side, where another horse can’t come up inside them and they won’t get bumped.

“In a race, you’ve got to learn how to put one down there,” said Borel’s agent, Jerry Hissam. “Most of these horses, when you turn for home they’re starting to drift, they’re starting to get tired. You’ve got to know how to put them down in there and keep them down in there. And why can’t anybody else do it? I don’t know.”

Dale Romans, who trains the third-place Derby finisher, Paddy O’Prado, attributes Borel’s inside success to having the patience to wait for an opening.

“If you get left (behind), you have to use your head. Don’t rush him up, put him in a bad spot, because you’re asking for trouble,” Borel said. “If you’re on the best horse, let him take you there.”

Rachel Alexandra took Borel to the Preakness winner’s circle last year, when he switched off Mine That Bird to ride the filly, who started from the No. 13 post. This time, Borel is sticking with the horse that got him to Pimlico for the 13/16-mile race.

“I’ve got total confidence he’ll be able to handle Pimlico,” said Todd Pletcher, who trains Super Saver.

Lukas believes Borel’s success is more about confidence than fearlessness.

“When he gets a horse that will cooperate, he really does it,” Lukas said. “His confidence level is way up right now and so he’s trying things that normally he might not even try.”

Borel’s tactics don’t fool anyone, not his fellow jockeys nor the betting public. But no one has tried to stop him yet.

“We all know what he’s going to do,” said Robby Albarado, who finished 14th in the Derby. “He just does it anyway.”

The inside path isn’t always open to Borel.

“He’s got shut off before. They got out in front of him sometimes,” Hissam said. “A lot of times it’s because he doesn’t have the right horse to get to that spot. The hole is going faster than he is. He can’t catch the hole so he can’t get through it.”

Borel is keeping tabs on Super Saver at Churchill Downs, where the colt is training for the Preakness and is scheduled to arrive Wednesday at Pimlico, three days before the race.

Super Saver had a light schedule before the Derby, with just two races, finishing third and second. His freshness could work in his favor during the grueling five-week Triple Crown campaign.

“God willing, he’s a colt that will take us all the way because he’s a nice horse,” Borel said.

Only 11 horses have swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, with Affirmed the last in 1978. There have been 11 Triple tries since then, with Big Brown making the most recent attempt in 2008. He won the first two legs, then finished last in the Belmont.

The 135th Preakness will include Paddy O’Prado and Dublin, the third- and seventh-place finishers in the Derby, and new shooters Derby Trial runner-up Aikenite (trained by Pletcher), First Dude, Florida Derby runner-up Pleasant Prince, Derby Trial winner Hurricane Ike, Schoolyard Dreams, Caracortado and A Little Warm, runner-up in the Louisiana Derby.

Besides Dublin, Lukas is bringing Northern Giant in a bid to win his sixth Preakness.

Trainer Nick Zito is expected to decide Monday whether to enter Jackson Bend, 12th in the Derby. That’s when Baffert will decide whether to bring back Lookin At Lucky, the Derby favorite who finished sixth after starting on the rail, and Conveyance, who finished 15th.

The Preakness is limited to 14 starters, with the field being set at Wednesday’s draw.

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