Derby-winning jockey primed for Preakness

Kent Desormeaux values the race as highly as he does the Derby.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Having earned a milestone victory at the Kentucky Derby aboard Big Brown, Kent Desormeaux hopes to keep his Triple Crown hopes alive with a sentimental win at the Preakness.

Long before he reached elite status in Southern California in the 1990s, the Hall of Fame jockey made a name for himself on Maryland race tracks. He won the 1987 Eclipse Award as outstanding apprentice jockey and was the leading winner at Pimlico Race Course in each of the next two years.

So when the 38-year-old Desormeaux enters the starting gate Saturday for the 133rd Preakness, the range of emotions he feels just might exceed those he experienced at Churchill Downs two weeks earlier.

“Everyone knows how excited people get for the Kentucky Derby. Well, I get just as excited or even more about the Preakness,” Desormeaux said. “I may have grown up in Maurice, La., but I grew up in the industry at Pimlico and Laurel Park. So to come there and get to ride in Maryland’s signature event is really important to me personally.”

After leaving Maryland in 1990, Desormeaux led the jockeys’ standings 11 times in California. After that, however, he reached the winner’s circle so infrequently that he decided the only cure for the slump was to return to the East Coast.

Instead of choosing Maryland, where the horse racing industry is struggling, Desormeaux picked New York.

The move revived his career, and Desormeaux culminated his return to glory by becoming the eighth three-time winner of the Kentucky Derby.

Now he’s seeking to win a second Preakness, to go along with the one on Real Quiet in 1998. It will be the 11th Preakness for Desormeaux, and this time he will be aboard the no-doubt favorite. Big Brown was so dominant in the Derby that none of those horses has returned to challenge him, but that won’t make winning the Triple Crown any easier.

“The butterflies are going to be there,” said Desormeaux, who ranks 23rd on the career win list with 4,971. “We just don’t know how resilient the horse is. We don’t know if he gets into a dogfight that he’ll just say, ‘Not this time. I’ll catch you next time.’

“That’s what is so awesome about the Triple Crown and the 11 horses who have accomplished the feat. It takes an absolute freak to be ready to go again in two weeks.”