Kent Desormeaux

Jockey Profile

Kent Desormeaux

Kent Desormeaux was born in Louisiana in the US on February 27, 1970.

Desormeaux started riding at a very young age. When he first started racing he raced American Quarter Horses but by the time he was 16 he had started his jockey apprenticeship at the Evangeline Downs racetrack in Louisiana. He won his first stakes race; the Maryland City Handicap - on Godbey just before he turned 17. He was an immediate success and received the Eclipse award for outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 1987.

Desormeaux competed in the Maryland racing circuit for 3 years, and for each of those3 years, he won more races each season than anyone else in America. He is one of the very few jockeys to have achieved 3 consecutive national titles. In 1989 when he was no longer an apprentice, he received the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey.

He won the same award in 1992. He is 1 out of only 3 jockeys ever to have won Eclipse awards in both the overall and apprentice groups. He set the presently unbroken record of 598 wins in a year in 1989.

He moved to California in the early 1990's where he continued to shine, but in 1992 he was severely injured when he was thrown and trampled by a horse at the Hollywood Park racetrack. Despite this, he was back in the saddle in time to win the 1993 Breeders' Cup Turf on Kotashaan. In 1995 he won the Breeders Cup Sprint on the filly Desert Stormer. Desormeaux was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2004.

As at May 25 2008, Desormeaux had 4977 wins to his name. He won two legs of the 2008 Triple Crown aboard Big Brown.

Kent Desormeaux - 10 Notable Wins

1996 - Del Mar Breeders' Cup Mile (Dramatic Gold)

1999 - Spinster Stakes (Keeper Hill)

2000 - Pimlico Special (Golden Missile)

2002 - Las Cienegas Handicap (Rolly Polly)

2003 - Woodbine Mile (Touch of the Blues)

2004 - Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (Ticker Tape)

2006 - Hollywood Futurity (Stormello)

2007 - River City Handicap (Thorn Song)

2008 - Kentucky Derby (Big Brown)

2008 - Preakness Stakes (Big Brown)