GOLDEN GLIMPSES #65 GOLDEN GLIMPSES #65 DESORMEAUX HOPES ROCKY ROAD LEADS TO KENTUCKY DERBY KO
Two years ago, Kent Desormeaux was spinning his wheels in quicksand.
After becoming the youngest jockey ever to reach 3,000 wins, at age 25 on April 16, 1995, he was going nowhere fast.
Eight days earlier, with victory dead ahead, Desormeaux lost the Santa Anita Derby. Leading by 1 1/2 lengths into the stretch aboard 7-5 favorite Afternoon Deelites, Desormeaux got nailed on the money, losing by a head to Larry The Legend, ridden by Gary Stevens.
But what went around came around at Santa Anita on Saturday. Desormeaux, riding Free House only because David Flores was committed to Isitingood (who would finish second) in the Oaklawn Handicap, won the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby on the 7-1 California-bred, defeating $2.10-1 second choice Silver Charm. The margin: a head. Silver Charm's rider: Gary Stevens.
"It has been a rocky two years," the 27-year-old Desormeaux admitted excitedly. "Two years ago, Gary laid a nose on me. This year, I laid a nose on Gary, so what goes around, comes around. It's a fickle business, and things go in circles, and now the circle is turning our way."
The "our" in our way is Kent and his new agent, Brian Beach. Desormeaux and his former agent, Gene Short, parted company a few months back after a successful run of nearly 10 years.
Desormeaux was the regular rider of Horse of the Year Kotashaan in 1993 and has two Breeders' Cup victories to go along with three Eclipse Awards, but he has never won the Kentucky Derby. A few weeks ago, he didn't even have a Derby contender. Now, he has two, Free House and Pacificbounty, who makes his next start in the Saturday's Arkansas Derby. Desormeaux said he won't make a decision on which horse to ride until after that race.
"I wouldn't say this win is my greatest ever, but it rates high because it leads to the Kentucky Derby, and (winning) that is the ultimate goal of every person in the industry," Desormeaux said.
Desormeaux won the Norfolk Stakes on Free House as a 2-year-old and regained the ride on the gray son of Smokester just before the Santa Anita Derby.
"Getting the mount only happened a few days before entries were taken," Desormeaux said. "It was a late-blooming thing and I was just in the right place at the right time. I was excited about riding him, because he had the two-best last races of the whole field. He beat Silver Charm (in the San Felipe), and here I am an overlay, if you ask me.
"No one is betting him, no one likes him because they hear all he wants to do is be a bad boy. Well, he's a good bad boy. He's a bad boy because he's attitude-cocky, and he has an attitude because he's fast. And that's a great luxury."
Now, Desormeaux has the great luxury of two live horses for the Derby, and victory on the first Saturday in May would put him on top of the racing world again.
GOLDEN PICKS
BAT ECLAT -- Couldn't hold off late surge of winner after battling for lead all the way, still held gamely for second. Softer pace is all he needs.
KAREN S. -- Sluggish start, traffic problems cost turf filly victory. Just needs a clean trip.
LA MALPENSADA -- Erratic pattern (second, third, fifth, third) in mile turf test. Should find winners' circle with more consistent effort.
THE HOMESTRETCH: Sharp Cat, a mild 2-1 favorite, finished a non-abused sixth in the Santa Anita Derby, leaving Wayne Lukas with an 0-for-18 record in Triple Crown prep races over the last two weeks. Lukas, who had 23 Triple Crown nominees, is left with just the filly and longshots Deeds Not Words and Wrightwood as Kentucky Derby possibilities . . . In what is developing into an Affirmed-Alydar type rivalry, Free House is now 2-1 versus Silver Charm in their last three races . . . Trudy McCaffery, who owns Free House with John Toffan, says she picked up the name on a jaunt through England. "Free house is an ale house in Europe," McCaffery said. Free House broke his maiden at Fairplex Park, a 5/8-mile track on California's fair circuit in Pomona . . . Has Chris Antley gone from AWOL to MIA? The jockey hasn't ridden since last October and his agent, Tony Matos, says he hasn't heard from Antman for a while. Matos and Julio Garcia, meanwhile, are enjoying a very successful meet . . . Patrick Valenzuela, alive, well and happy, was a Santa Anita visitor on Derby Day
. . . The stewards have tentatively set Thursday morning for an open hearing on Corey Nakatani's assault on Garcia following the San Luis Rey Stakes on March 23 . . . Give Gary Stevens an "H" for honesty. After nixing the mount on victorious Singspeil in the $4 million Dubai World Cup, the president of the Jockeys Guild said, "I feel like the biggest idiot right now
. . . But you have to take the good with the bad. I've been in that situation quite a few times myself, where I've picked up horses at the last minute." Jerry Bailey took the mount and maintained his monopoly on the race. He won last year's inaugural on Cigar . . . Most indelible comment at the Santa Anita Derby media breakfast came from Cliff Goodrich: "When I look at this backdrop, this is something that's too great to lose," Santa Anita's president said, pointing to the San Gabriel Mountains, caressed by verdant trees and grass, blue skies and sunshine beyond the backstretch. "I just want to encourage you all not to believe everything you read in the papers. We've had 60 runnings of the Santa Anita Derby, and I can just about tell you, it's going to be run another 60 years, after we're all gone." His comment was prompted by persistent talk of the track's sale, and, perhaps, the end of racing in Arcadia. Goodrich added nothing is guaranteed, but "the board is going to meet in the next few weeks, and I think the odds are great that we're going to be racing here for a long time." . . . And in case you missed it, Jay Leno says Hollywood is making a movie about the Heaven's Gate cult. It's called "NO Private Parts."
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