Hall Of Fame Jockey Kent Desormeaux Reaches 5,000-Win Mark

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Posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux rode his 5,000th winner Sunday, July 27, aboard Gumpster Stables’ Bella Attrice in the 7th allowance race at Saratoga Race Course.

“I’m in awe of the number. Five thousand, WOW!” said jockey Kent Desormeaux. “It’s a long way from 10,000 (jockey Russell Baze, all-time leading rider). Those numbers were attained in California and New York, the “A” league, so I am proud of that.”

The milestone victory took a while to reach. He rode his 4,998th winner on July 7 at Philadelphia Park, then went 0-for-30 before riding No. 4,999 last Opening Day Wednesday, July 23, at Saratoga.

“Aside from my first win (aboard Miss Tavern at Evangeline Downs on July 13, 1986), my first Kentucky Derby (on Real Quiet in 1998),” said the 38-year-old jockey Kent Desormeaux, who is the 23rd jockey to reach the 5,000 mark. “Those are the two I hold close to my heart.”

Jockey Kent Desormeaux has ridden three Kentucky Derby winners, including Big Brown this year. He won riding titles in California, Maryland and Japan during a career he began as a teenager at the bush tracks in his native Louisiana, where he rode his first winner on July 13, 1986.

He and Big Brown also won the Preakness before he pulled up the colt in the Belmont Stakes, failing to become racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner.

Desormeaux won Eclipse Awards as the nation’s outstanding rider in 1989 and 1992 and another as the nation’s leading apprentice jockey in 1987.

Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004, jockey Kent Desormeaux moved his tack from California to New York two years later and enjoyed a major revival in his career. In 2006, he rode winners of more than $8.6 million and last year finished 11th nationally with $11.9 million in purses earned. At Saratoga in 2007, he finished one victory behind jockey Cornelio Velasquez, 44-43, in the race for the Saratoga riding title.

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"Hall Of Fame Jockey Kent Desormeaux Reaches 5,000-Win Mark" was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Horse Racing Industry, Jockeys, Race Tracks News, Saratoga, USA Horse Racing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.