Three-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Kent Desormeaux knows he is in the last-chance saloon as he bids to rebuild a Hall of Fame career at Santa Anita. Warts-and-all interview with Jon Lees
USA: After missing nearly the whole of 2022, one of the most decorated jockeys of all time, Hall of Famer and three-time Eclipse Award winner Kent Desormeaux, is back in the saddle.
For ten months he was persona non grata in California where officials deemed a 2021 altercation in a Del Mar parking lot involving an intoxicated Desormeaux was a discretion too far. He was in breach of an agreement made with the California Horse Racing Board to stay off the alcohol and was issued with a 60-day suspension.
Then followed an arrest in January in his home state of Louisiana on a domestic battery and abuse charge. For that incident he was also banned from Santa Anita, plus other tracks owned by 1/ST Racing.
Desormeaux, 52, has never denied his alcoholism and the challenges he has faced trying to beat it. He has been in the last-chance saloon more than once but this time, having served his ban and had his exclusion lifted, he accepts he cannot afford another misstep.
The jockey who has won the Kentucky Derby three times, partnered 6,118 winners for prize-money in excess of $300 million – the seventh best of all time – says he has more goals to fulfil. Not least repairing his battered reputation.
“When you look up my name I don’t want it to say ‘Just fresh out of rehab’,” he says. “I want it to say ‘Three-time Kentucky Derby winner’. I want this last tenure to be a fulfilling one, with more accolades and another plaque on the wall in the Hall of Fame. That would be a nice ending, wouldn’t it?
‘A lot easier to have a drink than not’
“Though my addiction has never interfered with my riding – every incident has been off track – I’ve had a disorderly conduct incident more than once because of alcohol. I don’t think there is another chance.
“I’ve said it every time, ‘I’ll never do that again’. This is the third time I’ve said it’s the last time. But it’s a difficult disease. It’s endless – and it’s a lot easier to have a drink than to not.”
He adds: “My head is in a better place than it’s ever been. I am probably healthier than ever being sober and I am more capable than ever of riding a racehorse to the wire for a win than ever. It seems quite elementary to me to continue.”
Desormeaux knows he won’t be first choice anymore and will have to wait his turn for the better rides. Still, he has set himself fellow Louisiana native Eddie Delahoussaye’s career score of 6,384 wins, the state’s winningmost jockey, as one of his goals.
He is now 266 off that mark after riding two winners at Los Alamitos to prove he still knows where the winning post is, but a lot will depend on how he fares during the Santa Anita winter meet that began on Boxing Day.
‘How much support?’
“I will get to my target,” he insists, “it is the ETA that is the question. How much support will I get from those on the backside?
“The more you win, the more you win, so it’s hard to unseat the leading riders because they are getting the first call. I have to try and beat them with the second- and third-call opportunities. It’s going to be slow before it quickens but I definitely have support.
“I could make it a lot easier by packing my tack and moving around but I think I am in the best place to race. I have family here. My brother trains here so I have support from loved ones, which is a foot in the door already.”
Earlier in his career, riding winners came so easily to Desormeaux. During the 1980s he topped the North American rankings by wins three years in a row and in 1989 set an American record when he rode 597 winners while based in Maryland.
While it would have been impossible for anyone to expect to maintain those numbers after a move to California, being part of that colony from 1990 brought opportunities to be considered for the biggest races.
Desormeaux became the regular rider of Best Pal and Breeders’ Cup winner Kotashaan. Aged 25 he became the youngest jockey to reach 3,000 winners, but also developed a reputation for being difficult and not following trainers’ orders.
Nevertheless he stayed in demand and in 1998 won the Kentucky Derby on Real Quiet, followed up in the Preakness and had the Triple Crown snatched away from him when Victory Gallop got up to beat them in a photo finish decided by a nose. It’s a defeat that still rankles.
‘Worst defeat in annals of racing history’
“I know what it feels like to win the Triple Crown because quite honestly I thought I had won it easily on Real Quiet,” he recalls.
“Talk about driving a man to drink! That could have been the worst defeat in the annals of racing history. It took them 40 minutes to determine that I had lost the Triple Crown. I don’t want to be remembered for that.
“I want to be remembered for winning the most races ever in one year,” he goes on. “I was just shy of 600 wins in one year.
“It’ll take a hell of man to break it because it took a hell of a man to produce it. I rode day and night, rain and snow. I didn’t think 600 was possible. I was 27 away with a week to go and I ended up winning 26 races. That’s incredible. I don’t win 26 races a month, I don’t ride 600 races a year anymore, much less the 2,312 horses I rode that year!”
Desormeaux gained his second Kentucky Derby win on Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000. The following year he had a short stint in Japan where he became the first foreign rider to win a Japanese Classic on Lady Pastel in the Japanese Oaks.
He continued to shuttle between the US and Japan for a time and in 2008 won his third Kentucky Derby on Big Brown, who also won the Preakness but was well beaten in the Belmont Stakes.
He has won five Breeders’ Cup races, the most recent in 2014 on Texas Red in the Juvenile, after trainer-brother Keith helped him back into the spotlight. In tandem they also won the 2016 Preakness with Exaggerator, Kent’s seventh in a Triple Crown race.
However, while he had been drinking virtually throughout his career, by 2011 it started to catch up with him when he accepted the first disorderly conduct charge against him after an incident with a security guard at Saratoga.
“I think I have drunk my entire life, since I was 14 years old, but it became a problem after my 30s when my career slowed down,” he says.
‘I was a working alcoholic’
“I was a working alcoholic,” he admits. “I started bouncing around places, moving away from California, moving to New York, moving to Japan, moving to Chicago, leaving the ‘A’ tracks and trying to find a place where no-one knows you and you can start a clean slate.
“But it seemed every time I moved the alcoholism got worse. It’s deflating to have to move from where you were once a superstar. It just made things worse.
“Now I am back where I am supposed to be, straightened up and cleaned up, got my head in a good place and surrounded myself with family and loved ones and they have given me the confidence to ride again.
“I am back where I belong where I hope I can retain my place, ride with the top-echelon riders in the main events so I can put the saddle on the wall when I retire when I’m ready, not because of some disorderly conduct.
Desormeaux says he had managed to stay off the booze for a year and a half before the Del Mar parking lot incident, when he had turned to the bottle after receiving some particularly bad news. Recognising his error, he immediately sought help.
‘The writing was on the wall’
“I drank too much and got loud,” he says. “I realised what happened and put myself in rehab immediately. The writing was on the wall. I had been sober for 18 months. I had this occasion and I knew I had to arrest the situation and so I did.
“I think that’s the difference this time. I want to be well. There is not anybody telling me to get well so I can ride.
“I went into a 30-day inpatient facility called Elevate. Instead of being in a classroom with 100 people, this time I had individual treatment. I also had personal therapy about my inner feelings.
“Being present, having clarity, being able to think faster with memory are the results of being sober. But being mentally healthy and dealing with feelings are what I learned for the first time. I hope to continue those lessons through my aftercare.”
He continues: “I am fighting my alcoholism every day. It doesn’t end when you’ve completed 30 days at the inpatient facility. Alcohol takes control of me and thus I need to stay away from it.
“One of the reasons I am talking about this is for them to be able to see there can be success after a breakdown. It doesn’t mean you have to quit and fold and continue to be a hazard to society. It can be controlled.
“The most important thing to getting control is to want to and the most obvious part of wanting it is to seek help. I don’t think anyone can do it by themselves. Talking about it is a massive positive.”
Desormeaux tries to fill his time during the dark days when there is no racing by doing the grocery shopping, watching movies, playing golf; doing things that prevent him getting bored so he is not tempted to drink. If he succeeds, he hopes he can be an example to others; he is up for the challenge.
“I want to be remembered as one who never gave up, even after being thrown in a hole, a hole that I dug,” he says. “This last hole was the deepest I’ve ever dug and the toughest out ever.
‘I have to earn their trust’
“Getting myself cleaned up was not the hardest part. The hardest part was getting approval from those outside looking in. That was embarrassing to me. Now I have to earn their trust and show they were correct in their decision.
“I want young jockeys of tomorrow to realise that when they look up my name they might want to wear my boots. For someone to wish to be the next Kent Desormeaux would be amazing.
“I should be a perfect example to stay away from alcohol. Because it is legal, it could be the worst drug ever.
“Don’t get involved with it because it can destroy your family. It has mine, twice. It can destroy your career, it has mine, several times. It can destroy your finances, it has mine, several times. If you want to lose those things and your legacy, get involved with alcohol, it will take it all.
“As I had it described to me, if you have keys in your pocket, alcohol will take a key at a time until all you have is an empty ring.”
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