LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Next Saturday, trainer Carl Nafzger will send out his Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense to try and win the richest race in the North America, the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Monmouth Park.

A victory and the 66-year-old Nafzger no doubt will have himself the Horse of the Year — a brilliant 3-year-old colt who would become the first thoroughbred to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the Derby, the Travers and the Classic.

Surely, the crowning achievement of a stellar career, right? Not for Nafzger.

Eight days after Street Sense runs the final race of his career, Nafzger will revisit his past when the former bull rider is inducted into the Professional Bull Riders’ Ring of Honor. The ceremony is Nov. 4 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, on the final day of the bull-riding world championships.

“To me, this is the greatest honor you can get,” Nafzger said one morning during a recent visit to his barn at Churchill Downs. “It’s the Hall of Fame of bull riding, you’re elected by your peers ... what more can anyone ask for? It’s awesome.”

Nafzger then leaned back on his chair and began showing pictures from his bull-riding days to anyone who dared take a peek.

“Here I am at the Houston Astrodome,” he said of the shot of a 20-something Nafzger atop a bucking bull, with a cowboy hat on his head, one hand in the air and the other gripping the bull rope for dear life.

“That bull doesn’t look very mean, Carl,” one of his exercise riders kidded.

“C’mon Carl, that’s not really you,” said another.

It’s him, all right. Nafzger was one serious bull rider, and he brought the same intensity to the racetrack, where he’s carved out a career of more than 1,000 victories — two Kentucky Derby wins among them — and likely will end up in racing’s Hall of Fame once his training days are over.

“He was a bundle of enthusiasm, who never said a negative word. And boy he was an aggressive rider, feet moving all the time while he sat straight up on the bull,” recalled former bull riding champion Gary Leffew, who used to travel the circuit with Nafzger in the 1960s and now writes movie scripts and runs a bull-riding school. “He always looked at the bright side, even on a bad day of riding. It’s easy to see why he’s become so successful as a trainer.”

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Nafzger grew up on a cattle ranch near Olton, Texas — between Amarillo and Lubbock — and was fascinated by the bulls his father raised. At 18, he joined the pro rodeo circuit as a bull rider. During a 10-year career, he reached the National Rodeo Finals three times — from 1963-65 — and finished third in the ’63 final standings.

“You had eight rides back then, and he rode six of eight,” said Mark Nestlen, Nafzger’s agent who has represented many bull riders. “If he had ridden one more, he would have been the champion. Eight seconds away.”

Along the way, Nafzger took out his horse trainer’s license in 1968 — the same year he and his wife, Wanda, were married in Cheyenne, Wyo. — and three years later, after winning a rodeo in Forth Worth, Texas, he retired to move into the world of thoroughbreds.

“My mind said ’go’ but my body said, ’No, no, no”’ Nafzger has said often when asked why he walked away from the bulls.

The sport certainly left its mark: Nafzger’s upper teeth were knocked out; he broke his nose seven times; and he has a steel rod in his leg due to several broken bones.

“When you get in that chute, there’s God, you and that bull,” he said. “And there’s not anything else out there. Sure, there are the clowns running around, but once you’re out of the chute, that’s it.”

For years, Nafzger has made a habit of mentioning bull riding while discussing racing, and that’s one of the reasons he’s being recognized by the PBR.

“The Ring of Honor is for a bull rider that promotes the sport and is a great ambassador — and who’s better than Carl?” PBR chief operating officer Randy Bernard said. “He has showcased bull riding to so many people outside the sport, and you can see how proud he is that he’s part of it. We know what he’s done in the racing industry, and we’re proud of him for what he’s gone on to do after his bull-riding career.”