FOR DESORMEAUX, LIFE'S A BEACH AGAIN

Kent Desormeaux's wild ride has gone from plummet to summit.

In 1993, the 27-year-old jockey with the matinee-idol good looks was the regular rider of Horse of the Year Kotashaan. At Del Mar, Desormeaux was winning races in clusters. He was the leading rider at the oceanside course for the second straight year with 63 victories.

By the tender age of 23, the Louisiana native had already won three Eclipse Awards. His other credentials read like a Hall of Fame dossier: 598 wins in 1989, most in one year; at 25, youngest rider ever to reach 3,000 victories; and winner of the 1993 George Woolf Award.

Turned out it was a case of too much, too soon. Near the end of '93, Desormeaux's career began to collapse like an ill-designed folding chair.

He misjudged the finish in the Japan Cup, a race he should have won; he suffered a life-threatening injury when he was kicked in the head in a freak spill at Hollywood Park; he developed an attitude that made Albert Belle seem like Mr. Rogers; and, he was repeatedly warned and penalized by stewards for not riding out his mounts. The downward spiral hit rock-bottom at Hollywood last meet when Desormeaux won only 24 races in 66 days and finished tied for ninth in the standings.

But after a four-year free fall, Desormeaux is riding tall again. He is in a dogfight for the riding title at Del Mar to dethrone Alex Solis, who has won the last six Southern California championships.

"There are quite a few factors for his resurgence," reasoned his newest agent, former TV sports anchor Brian Beach, who took Desormeaux's book about a year ago.

"The Hollywood meet was the worst since he's been in California, and I think that motivated him. He had to examine what he could do to help. He understood that a lot of it was out of my control. If trainers and owners don't want you, they don't want you. We had to find a new way for them to want Kent Desormeaux again.

"One way is Kent being out here working his tail off every morning, which he's been doing. You can check with the clockers. They can tell you he is by far on more horses than any other jockey out here.

"Another is getting back in the good graces of owners. There's not much you can do except talk to them and plead your case, and Del Mar is a great place to do that because so many owners show up in the paddock and during morning workouts. By Kent working as hard as he is, he's been able to do that.

"There were some recent articles published in which Kent admitted his mistakes and explained how he was going to rectify them. It's important for people to know that he recognizes the problem.

"The closing weekend at Hollywood Park, he won the Swaps on Free House and the Vanity (a pickup mount from an injured Chris McCarron) on Twice the Vice. Those two wins got a lot of people's attention. He got a call on Formal Gold in the Whitney at Saratoga a couple days after that, and things just started to snowball.

"And the last month-and-a-half of the Hollywood meet, he spent every morning at Santa Anita working horses for (Bob) Baffert, and Baffert's been a big part of the meet we've had. (In 17 rides for Baffert, Desormeaux had seven wins, three seconds and five thirds). It's a combination of things -- David Flores getting injured opened up more of Baffert's stock for us. But being in the right spot for Baffert paid off. It wasn't just a matter of walking up and asking if we could ride for him."

Said Baffert: "Kent's attitude is good and he's riding every horse aggressively. He's not worried about riding every horse in the race. He's concentrating on riding his horse. But in most cases, your success depends on who you ride for. If you have one barn and it goes cold, you're in trouble. Kent is starting to ride for more outfits and that really helps. His confidence level is really good, and that's the main thing. But you've got to have the right horse. It's the same for trainers. If you don't have the right horse, you're nothing."

High-percentage trainer Ron Ellis said there was no particular reason he put Desormeaux on Twice the Vice. But there was surprise, if not shock, expressed by some press box regulars, who have taken as much delight in picking on Desormeaux as the evil step-sisters did on Cinderella. "Kent was available and I thought his style would fit her," explained Ellis. "I have confidence in him. He seems real focused on what he's doing."

Beach, low-key to the point of shyness, is a realist. He admits more must be done before Kent can resurrect a foundation with Bobby Frankel, or even Dick Mandella, for whom Desormeaux gained fame and fortune on Kotashaan. "We're still not in the spot we'd like to be with Mandella," Beach said. "Obviously, we'd like to ride Sandpit and Siphon when they come open, but we got passed over. We're working on that.

"Timing was another factor in Kent's resurgence. He won eight races the first week and a lot of them were on horses he had already been riding. It just happened they all won the same week.

"Another thing is, Kent rides this race track pretty well. This is not a speed-favoring track at all, and, if you give him a choice, he's never going to put a horse on the lead."

When it came to successful teams, Desormeaux and his former agent, Gene Short, had a run that rivaled Elvis and Col. Parker. But after 10 years, their business relationship came to an end.

Beach's primary demand of Desormeaux: ride out all his horses. Desormeaux has complied.

"Ever since I've had his book he's been pretty good about finishing out on his horses," said Beach, an agent for some eight years. "But there were a few that he didn't. I told him, you get no mercy from anyone -- sportswriters, owners, trainers. Anytime he raises up on a horse because it actually did take a bad step a few jumps before the wire, he's going to get blamed because of his past record. Every single horse, he's got to ride out past the wire.

"I think a lot of his critics in the press box have noticed he's riding out his mounts now. Matter of fact, (trainer) Julio Canani told me the other day there was a group of about 10 of them watching a replay of Kent riding out his horse for ninth place."

COME ON COYOTE -- Long shot ran huge in first route try. Deserves another chance against $25,000 types.

ECHO DANCER -- Won geared down versus $50,000 maidens in first start in more than a year. Repeat on tap against tougher foes.

ZIPPERSUP -- Lucky to keep his feet when bumped in mid stretch, still missed by a narrow nose. Tab for blazing Baffert in allowance turf route.

THE HOMESTRETCH: Baffert on the secret to his success this meet, where he's winning at better than a 36 percent clip: "We're placing our horses in the right spots and we've had a lot of luck, too. But we've always done well here." On his exceptional crop of 2-year-olds: "Indian Charlie will be out for 60 days. We took a chip out of his ankle. He's really good, and Souvenir Copy (entered in Wednesday's Best Pal Stakes) is a star, too. I've got some others I haven't started yet, Commiticized and Crestview, but they're gonna be good ones."

SILVER CHARM TO RETURN IN MALIBU

Bob Baffert hopes to celebrate Christmas with the return of Silver Charm. Del Mar's leading trainer said the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner is being pointed for his comeback in the seven-furlong Malibu Stakes (Gr. I) at Santa Anita on Dec. 26. The son of Silver Buck has been recovering from an infection following his unsuccessful bid for the Triple Crown in the June 7 Belmont Stakes, in which he was second to Touch Gold.

"We're tack-walking him and he's back in light training," Baffert said of the gray Florida-bred colt, a winner of five of nine starts with four seconds and earnings of $1,776,500.

Touch Gold, meanwhile, will miss Saturday's Travers due to recurring problems with his left front hoof. Trainer David Hofmans hopes to have the colt ready for the $1-million Pegasus at the Meadowlands on Sept. 20.