LOUISVILLE – Kent Desormeaux, the whoop-de-do Cajun jockey who came out of the Louisiana bayous to inscribe his name in racing’s history books with a bust-out, take-no-prisoners riding style, was standing by the barns at Churchill Downs on Derby eve, trying to figure out who would win the 132nd running of the great race.
He shook his head and said, “This is the toughest Kentucky Derby ever. Anyone of five or six could win it. A serious horse could come out of this Derby, perhaps even more than one. My horse (Sweetnorthernsaint) is a contender.
He is equal to anything I’ve ever ridden at this stage of the game.” Ol’ Kent ought to know.
At 36 years of age, he has just about done everything, seen everything and experienced everything the tough racing game has to serve up. He has won two Derbies, on Real Quiet and Fusiachi Pegasus, became the youngest jockey in history – at 25 – to win 3,000 races, beating out none other than the great Bill Shoemaker, Sandy Hawley and Chris McCarron.
He’s been crowned America’s premier jockey three times, he is this day the third-highest-active money winner in the game (with $180 million in earnings), he’s hit the jackpot in places like Japan, and two years ago was elected to the Hall of Fame.
Now he was thinking seriously that he could win his third Derby on Sweetnorthernsaint.
“We’re going to be blowing smoke down the flanks of whoever is in front of us,” he promised.
“My horse is a cruiser.
While other horses are in full run, he’s in a high gallop.
He can gallop other horses to death. Nothing bothers him.” Desormeaux conceded he could do with another Derby win and the fame and riches that go with it.
After a gypsy kind of riding life, moving from one circuit to another, from California to Japan to Kentucky, he has finally come to New York to revive a slightly sagging career.
“I’m gonna put a stake in the ground there,” he said.
“I got tired of being a shower jockey in California.” A shower jockey? What the hell is that, I asked.
“That’s a jockey who comes to the track, rides one race, has a shower and goes home,” Desormeaux laughed. “It’s like going to the track to take a shower.
My business, unfortunately, was not what I hoped it would be in California.
“So I’ve come to New York and I’m very appreciative of the reception I’ve had. I’ve ridden a few winners, and I plan to stay here right through Saratoga and beyond.
“A Derby win would give my career a little push. I really want to go to work, ride six or more horses a day. I still love to ride and play the game at the top.” Desormeaux admitted that ace jockey Jerry Bailey’s retirement was a major factor in relocating to New York. “I wouldn’t be there if Jerry was still riding,” he said. “It would be like banging your head against the wall.
“Jerry did something I’ve never seen before. He was able to sustain his position as leading rider in America for six years. That was exceptional, but to hell with his riding ability.
“What amazed me was how he was able to keep all his clients happy through six years. That was unbelievable, profound. What a wonderful job he did.” Desormeaux is not far behind.
He was a terror in the saddle. In 1987, as an apprentice, he won a mindboggling 450 races, 59 more than the runner-up, the one and only Pat Day. He rode so many stakes winners that year that he surpassed the record set by another fabulous apprentice, Steve Cauthen.
In 1989, Desormeaux went to the moon. He won 598 races. For three years straight, he rode more winners than any other jockey in the U.S., a feat accomplished only by Day and Bill Hartack.
But in recent years, the jockey’s tendency to speak his mind and his tendency to flit off to Japan put a freeze on his business in California. Last year, he rode just 75 winners.
So his trip to Louisville, to ride a real Derby contender in Sweetnothernsaint, is part of the great comeback he is planning.
“I can still ride with the best of them,” he said. Few in the business would disagree.
HE KENTUCKY DERBY
