Desormeaux Returns to Louisiana to Ride at Fair Grounds

Cajun-born Kent Desormeaux, who began his Hall of Fame career as a jockey at the unsanctioned "bush tracks" of Louisiana on his way to riding more than 6,000 winners, has returned home to Louisiana to ride full time at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots this winter.

Frustrated by reduced opportunities in California, where he has predominantly ridden since 2014, Desormeaux sought a change in circuits. He is experiencing one of his quietest years as a jockey, with 34 winners from 269 mounts and earnings of $2.4 million. He last rode at Del Mar Nov. 10, winning with one of his two mounts that afternoon.

"I am not finished. I have goals to attain," he said in a telephone interview from New Orleans Nov. 16.

One of those goals is catching retired legend and fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Delahoussaye, another native of Louisiana, as the 15th-winningest rider in North American racing history. Delahoussaye has ridden 6,384 winners; Desormeaux stands at 6,028—a tally compiled by Equibase that does not include overseas triumphs, which he estimates at 130 during a period he spent riding in Japan, plus other victories he picked up in Europe.

Carl Gambardella (6,349), John Velazquez (6,141), and Johnny Longden (6,032) stand between them. Of the three, only Velazquez is active.

Desormeaux, 49, won his third Kentucky Derby (G1) in 2008 aboard Big Brown . His first two wins in the American classic took place aboard Real Quiet (1998) and Fusaichi Pegasus (2000). The year of Big Brown's Derby triumph, he won 171 races and his mounts made $15.6 million—his highest yearly earnings to date. 

More recently, Desormeaux has teamed successfully with horses trained by his older brother, Keith—for whom he rode Exaggerator  to victory in the 2016 Preakness Stakes (G1), marking his seventh win in a Triple Crown race.

The evening after winning the Preakness, Desormeaux blacked out after going on a drinking binge. After admitting to a long struggle with alcohol abuse, he went into rehab with encouragement from Keith and other family.

"Why have all this success and I don't even remember where I was partying?" he said in an interview with TVG in 2016. "I think that's when I hit bottom."

Desormeaux said he will ride for Keith at the upcoming Fair Grounds meet that begins Nov. 28. His brother, like the rider, has been based in California over the past few years but intends to have a string of horses at Fair Grounds, the jockey said. Keith regularly trained at Fair Grounds through 2014 before shifting his base to the West Coast.

Desormeaux also has ties to high-percentage Louisiana trainer Ron Faucheux and knows one of the trainer's owners, Jeffery Picard, who races under the stable name Picard Thoroughbreds Racing Stable. His new agent, longtime Louisiana racetracker Joey Fontenot, is also a former Faucheux assistant.

Saturday was Desormeaux's first day on track at Fair Grounds, where training is underway as horses arrive in advance of the meet. "Boots on the ground. FGNO," Desormeaux said on Twitter.

Not quite boots, Fontenot recalled with a laugh, noting the jockey's gear had not yet arrived from California. "He was in dress shoes. No helmet or nothing," he said.

Desormeaux is the second jockey in the past week to announce an exit from California, following Martin Garcia, who begins riding in Kentucky Nov. 20. He believes short fields in that state, which has seen a declining horse population after a publicized rash of breakdowns, have made securing desired mounts difficult. He aims to regain momentum at Fair Grounds, located roughly 2 1/2 hours away from his childhood home in Maurice, La.

Desormeaux has never ridden full time at the track, only riding there when he followed stakes mounts for major races. This winter will mark the first time he has ridden consistently in the state since he was a 16-year-old apprentice jockey in 1986, when he rode for about 10 weeks between Evangeline Downs and Louisiana Downs. He left for Maryland soon afterward and became the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 1987.

He added Eclipse Awards as outstanding jockey in 1989 and 1992.