Oaklawn Barn Notes: Owner Carson McCord Savors First Career Stakes Win

By Jennifer Hoyt —-

Owner Carson McCord Savors First Career Stakes Win

Owner Carson McCord, 20, collected her first career stakes victory in Saturday’s $100,000 Nodouble Breeders’ with favored K J’s Nobility ($5.60), who rolled to a three-length victory in the 6-furlong race for Arkansas-breds under Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel.

“I’m so happy,” McCord said moments after leading her prized 6-year-old gelding into the winner’s circle. “I can breathe now.”

McCord graduated from nearby Lake Hamilton High School in 2018 and is a sophomore at Chapman University in suburban Los Angeles, with an eye toward becoming a hedge fund manager. She is majoring in business administration.

McCord said because Chapman has moved all classes online until the end of the spring semester (COVID-19), it is allowing her to watch her horses run in person. But, even in a perfect world, McCord said she still would have been in Hot Springs for Saturday’s race.

“I already had my plane ticket booked,” said McCord, who started her first horse as a teenager in the summer of 2018. “I was planning on being here. I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.”

Saturday’s victory moved McCord to 5 for 8 at the meeting and into a tie for eighth in the owner’s standings. McCord’s handful of horses on the grounds are with trainer Cecil Borel, 66, Calvin Borel’s older brother.

According to statistics compiled by Equibase, racing’s official data organization, K J’s Nobility represented McCord’s 11th victory from 52 starts overall and pushed her career purse earnings to $406,911. McCord’s first career starter, K J’s Nobility, finished fourth in an Aug. 17, 2018, allowance race at Indiana Grand. She had claimed the Primary Suspect gelding about a month earlier for $25,000. Her first career victory was Nov. 2, 2018, at Indiana Grand (Ship Stalker). The Nodouble was her fifth career stakes start.

Cecil Borel came out of a lengthy retirement at the 2019 Oaklawn meeting and recorded his first victory in more than 4 ½ years with K J’s Nobility in an Arkansas-bred starter-allowance sprint last April. K J’s Nobility nearly gave McCord her first career stakes victory less than a month later when he finished second, beaten a half-length by Hoonani Road, in Oaklawn’s inaugural $200,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship at 1 1/16 miles.

Already at the 2020 Oaklawn meeting, McCord and Borel have teamed to win two races with K J’s Nobility, two races with Futile and a March 22 Arkansas-bred allowance race with Flatoutandfoxy. McCord and Borel, as co-owners, also campaign Bubbas Dixie, a March 20 winner.

McCord said her hook to Thoroughbred racing was through her father, Bill McCord, who bred and owned horses before going into the stock business in the 1990s. She said Borel had a business relationship with her father during the 1980s. In addition to Cecil and Calvin, another important member of Team Borel is Renay, the jockey’s wife and assistant trainer.

“You can’t beat them,” Carson McCord said. “You really can’t. I couldn’t ask for a better trainer and a better jockey. Calvin is there in the morning wrapping the horses. He knows the horse better than anyone. They’re family. Horses are family. It’s perfect.”

Flatoutandfoxy represented the first career training victory for Renay Borel Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs. She had taken over Cecil Borel’s small stable last fall after he briefly stepped away from the game. Futile, Renay Borel’s first career starter, was claimed out of a Feb. 7 victory for $16,000, but recently rejoined Cecil Borel’s stable after being privately purchased by McCord. Futile is entered in Thursday’s seventh race.

Borel said Thursday morning that he planned to stretch out K J’s Nobility in his next start, with the major spring objective the $165,000 Arkansas Breeders’ Championship for state-breds at 1 1/16 miles May 1.

“If Cecil would have had him a little longer, we would have won that race last year,” McCord said.

The Nodouble marked Borel’s first stakes victory since the $50,000 King Cotton for older sprinters Feb. 5, 2010, at Oaklawn with Cosmic.

Finish Lines

Illinois-based trainer Brittany A. Vanden Berg’s first Oaklawn starter was a winner as favored Slick Silver ($6) captured Saturday’s seventh race under Joe Rocco Jr. The victory moved Vanden Berg, a former jockey, to 4 for 6 this year and 16 for 66 overall since starting her first horse May 26, 2019, at Arlington Park, according to Equibase, racing’s official data gathering organization. Her first career training victory was June 9, 2019, at Arlington Park. Vanden Berg’s first career starter, Shanghai Point, is entered in Friday’s second race. … Jockey Stewart Elliott recorded his 4,944th career North American victory, according to Equibase, in Saturday’s second race aboard Coworker ($13.80) for 2015 Oaklawn training champion Chris Hartman. Elliott entered Sunday ranked 37th in North American history in victories and 55th in purse earnings ($104,696,555). … Two-time Oaklawn riding champion Calvin Borel ranks 25th in North American history in victories (5,255), the latest coming in Saturday’s $100,000 Nodouble Breeders’ Stakes aboard favored K J’s Nobility ($5.60) for his older brother, trainer Cecil Borel, and owner Carson McCord of Hot Springs. K J’s Nobility represented the 969th career victory, including 52 stakes, in Calvin Borel’s Oaklawn career. He was Oaklawn’s leading rider in 1995 and 2001. … Win-machine Heavens Whisper won her second consecutive start in starter-allowance company in Saturday’s sixth race for trainer Paul Holthus of Hot Springs, who claimed the 5-year-old mare for $50,000 Feb. 16. Heavens Whisper was the country’s co-winningest horse last year with nine victories. … Walter De La Cruz ($1,003,687) became the seventh jockey to reach $1 million in purse earnings at the meet Saturday. De La Cruz entered Sunday with 22 victories to rank sixth in the standings. … Favored Sunny Dale ($4.80) became the meet’s second three-time winner with a front-running allowance score in Friday’s eighth race for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. … Nominations to the $100,000 Purple Martin Stakes for 3-year-old filly sprinters April 4 closed Saturday with 26 nominations.