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Favorite mount

Fusaichi Pegasus delivers under Desormeaux

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Posted: Saturday May 06, 2000 09:22 PM

Kent Desormeaux leads Fusaichi Pegasus to the winner's circle. AP CNNSI.com On-Site Nick Charles The most impressive thing is that this horse and jockey fit so well together. You have to have the horsepower and this horse came from 15 lengths back early to win. He put away this field like it was batting practice. He dropped in. He went wide. He changed gears. Also, the way the horse and jockey, Kent Desormeaux, fit together was special. The jockey knew when to push the button and where to place the horse. Fusaichi Pegasus was not running against the field. He was running against the clock and against himself. His jolt, the power was so superior that Desormeaux hand rode him to the finish.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Kent Desormeaux and Fusaichi Pegasus make a perfect pair.

Just two years after Desormeaux hit the pinnacle of his career with a Kentucky Derby victory aboard Real Quiet, he easily won his second Derby, hand-riding favorite Fusaichi Pegasus to a 1 1/2-length victory.

The jockey has been aboard the feisty bay colt in all of the horse's career victories, including his dominating victory in the Wood Memorial last month.

Desormeaux was not aboard the colt in his only loss.

"Every time I ride him, he becomes more attentive and more like a pony," Desormeaux said. "We've become one."

Asked about Fusaichi Pegasus' Triple Crown potential, Desormeaux said, "With luck and health involved, I think he's a horse capable of that."

Saturday's Derby was Desormeaux's ninth.

"He just took off like a rocket," Desormeaux said. "And at that point, I knew the race was over."

Trainer Neil Drysdale said he watched the replay of the race three times. "Kent was riding him with one hand," Drysdale said. "He was very relaxed."

Before Real Quiet, also a relatively easy winner, the closest the three-time Eclipse Award recipient came to a Derby victory was a third in 1990 with Pleasant Tap. Real Quiet and Desormeaux went on to win the Preakness before suffering a heartbreaking loss in the Belmont in a photo finish after a grueling stretch duel with Victory Gallop.

Desormeaux has never won the Belmont, and the 1998 win was his only Preakness victory.

But Desormeaux has broken several riding records. At 25, he set a record as the youngest jockey ever to win 3,000 races. At 27, he also was the youngest rider ever to top $100 million in earnings.

Just last year, Desormeaux ranked 13th nationally with purse earnings of $9,073,615, but was injured and did not ride the rest of the year.

Desormeaux, now 30, led the nation's jockeys in victories for three years in a row beginning in 1987, a streak matched only by Pat Day and Bill Hartack.

Early in his career, Desormeaux became one of the top riders in southern California, considered by some the country's toughest circuit.

He was aboard Free House during the colt's 1997 Triple Crown rivalry with Derby winner Silver Charm. Free House, which skipped the Derby, finished second in the Preakness and third in the Belmont.

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