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| Facts | Born: February 27, 1970 in Maurice, Louisiana
Height: 5'3"
Weight: 115
Home: La Caņada, California
Summer Residence: Del Mar, California
Family: Married his to his teenage sweetheart, Sonia, in 1990 shortly before moving his tack to California. They have two sons; Joshua and Jacob.
Career Milestones and Highlights...
After beginning to ride in 1986 at Evangeline Downs, he rode his first winner, Miss Tavern, at Evangeline Downs on July 13, 1986. A year later he moved his tack to Maryland.
In 1987 he was the nations' leading apprentice in victories with 450 (which also led all jockeys and was 59 more than runner-up Pat Day). His horses earned $5.1 million and his 20 stakes victories Steve Cauthen's record.
Rode 598 winners in 1989, primarily on the Maryland circuit, breaking Chris McCarron's 15-year-old record for most wins in a year.
After his 'Big Cap win aboard Milwaukee Brew |
Is one of only four jockeys (Russell Baze, Pat Day and Bill Hartack) to win three consecutive national victory titles (450 wins in 1987; 474 wins in 1988; 598 wins in 1989).
First Grade 1 win came on Delegant in the 1990 San Juan Capistrano.
On July 3, 1992, became the third rider to win six races on a single card at Hollywood Park, following Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay, Jr.
Leading rider (money-won) in 1992 as horses accounted for 46 stakes wins while earning $14.1 million. A year in 1993 be he ranked second with $13.1 million.
Won first Breeder's Cup race aboard Richard Mandella-trained Kotashaan in the 1993 Breeders' Cup Turf at Oak Tree. Later won the 1995 Breeders' Cup Sprint aboard Desert Stormer for trainer Frank Lyons.
Received the 1993 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award at Santa Anita, which is given to the jockey who displays high professional and personal standards on and off the track.
At age 25 in 1995, Desormeaux became the youngest rider to win 3,000 races and later became the youngest rider to reach $100 million in purses.
In 1998, led jockeys with 28 Southern California stakes wins - 20 with trainer Neil Drysdale. They also teamed up to win Woodbine Mile with Labeeb.
In 1998 he won his first Kentucky Derby aboard Real Quiet, then followed by a victory in the Preakness, and missing the Triple Crown by a nose to Victory Gallup in the Belmont Stakes.
Won his second Kentucky Derby in 2000 guiding Fusaichi Pegasus (the first betting favorite to win the Derby since Spectacular Bid in 1979) to the finish line in one of the more dominating Derby efforts of the previous decade.
Kent Desormeaux winning G1 in Japan |
In 2001, Kent elected to ride bybass the Kentucky Derby and ride a two-month engagement in Japan. With racing conducted only two days a week in Japan, the engagement afforded him the opportunity to spend needed time with his hearing-impaired son. He not only won the JRA riding title in Tokyo, but he was the first foreign jockey to win a Japanese Classic. In fact, he won two G1's, won more races, and earned more purse money in two months than any other foreign jockey had in history riding three months. He returned two years later and continued his success and he won over thirty races in the span of two months.
In 2004, after seventeen years of riding, Desormeaux was inducted into the horse racing Hall of Fame along with trainer Shug McGaughey, and horses Skip Away and Flawlessly. | | | | | | | | | | |
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