SANTA ANITA : McCarron Says He Thinks More Is Expected of Desormeaux Than There Was of Him

The comparison between Chris McCarron and Kent Desormeaux is easy to make. Before the Maryland-based McCarron came to California in 1978, he had won an Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding apprentice jockey, had led the country in victories more than once and held the record for most wins in a year.

Desormeaux, who began riding at Santa Anita Wednesday, also came from Maryland. He has won two Eclipse Awards, as an apprentice in 1987 and as a journeyman last year, and has been the national leader in victories three consecutive years, including 1989, when his 597 wins broke McCarron’s 15-year-old record by 51.

McCarron, who has added an Eclipse Award and three national money titles since coming West, is aware of the Desormeaux parallels. But he also sees a lot of differences.

“I’m not sure, but it might be that a lot more is being expected of Kent than there was of me,” McCarron said. “Those big years I had were a few years behind me by the time I came to California. I don’t think my arrival out here was played up as much as Kent’s is. I was just another new face on the scene.”

McCarron remembers arriving at Santa Anita on March 27, his 23rd birthday. He closed out the Santa Anita season and, counting the opening weeks at Hollywood Park, says he won about 65 races in his first 70 days on the West Coast. He has been a fixture here ever since.

“I don’t know about talent, but statistically I think there are more jockeys with credentials out here now than there were when I got here. Back then, there was Laffit (Pincay), Shoe (Bill Shoemaker), Darrel McHargue and Sandy Hawley.”

Pincay is still around, of course. Hawley, at Santa Anita now, mainly rides in his native Canada. Other jockeys whom Desormeaux has met in the last several days include Eddie Delahoussaye, Gary Stevens and Pat Valenzuela, all nationally known.

“Besides them,” McCarron said, “we also have guys like that guy over at the water fountain right now. There are a lot of guys out here who know how to win races.” McCarron pointed across the jockeys’ room to Russell Baze, who once won 15 consecutive seasonal titles at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields.

When McCarron came to California, he hired a local agent, Harry (The Hat) Hacek, to book his mounts. Whether an incoming jockey should bring his agent with him or hire someone already entrenched in California has long been a topic of discussion, but McCarron really had no choice, because his Maryland agent wanted to stay in the East.

“The main thing when you make a move is that your agent should be totally committed,” McCarron said. “And I mean 110%. Even 98% isn’t good enough. I remember going to Keeneland one year, when the Maryland tracks were on strike, and my agent wasn’t sold on being there, because he was afraid that if we did well, I might want to stay in the Midwest. The whole meet, I couldn’t buy a mount.”

Desormeaux’s agent is 34-year-old Gene Short, a native of Hot Springs, Ark., who used to sneak into the races when he was a teen-ager, posing as a hot walker.

Short cashed the first bet he ever made, a $42 winner. “I got into racing to make a million dollars betting the races,” Short said. “I found out soon enough that nobody knows who’s going to win these races. I hardly make a bet now. We’re out here just to ride a lot of winners.”

Desormeaux is only the fourth rider Short has handled since he started working as an agent in 1982. They hooked up the day after Desormeaux won the fifth race of his career, in Louisiana, and were together for the last three years in Maryland, where Desormeaux was based while winning 1,521 races.

Desormeaux went 0 for 5 in his Santa Anita debut, then missed with two more horses Thursday before riding favored Spirit Bay to victory in the third race. Spirit Bay paid $4.

Desormeaux, who had eight mounts for the day, also won the last race with Aloma’s Tobin, another favorite, who paid $4.80. In the feature, Desormeaux rode Santangelo, who went off at 45-1, to a second-place finish, 2 3/4 lengths behind Opening Verse.

Although the California competition is the toughest Desormeaux has faced, he believes he will be more comfortable riding here.

“This is a better (jockeys’) colony than I’ve ever been used to,” Desormeaux said. “And what that means is that everybody knows where they’re going out there. That should be better for me, because I won’t have to do the thinking for anybody else.”

Five horses are likely to run against Bayakoa in Sunday’s Santa Margarita Handicap, and the list could grow if trainer Ron McAnally decides to save his Eclipse Award-winning mare for the Santa Anita Handicap.

Expected to run either way are Gorgeous, Nikishka, Luthier’s Launch, Kelly and Carita Tostada.

Two of the six sprinters entered in Saturday’s 5 1/2-furlong El Conejo Handicap are trained by John Sadler, who will start Olympic Prospect if the track is dry, and Frost Free if it comes up mud.

Others entered are Sunny Blossom, Bet on the Blurr, Prospectors Gamble and Ole Hank McGill. Sunny Blossom, who set a track record for six furlongs of 1:07 in upsetting Olympic Prospect by 1 1/4 lengths in the Palos Verdes Handicap on Dec. 30, will still have a four-pound weight advantage over Sadler’s horse Saturday.

Horse Racing Notes

Kent Desormeaux’s scheduled riding appearance Monday in Saudi Arabia has been canceled. Desormeaux said he was told that the mount he was supposed to ride in the race is not 100%, and the sponsors didn’t want him on a horse which didn’t have the best chance. . . . A big field is expected Monday for the $250,000 San Luis Obispo Handicap at Santa Anita, and one of the candidates for the 1 1/2-mile grass race is Drum Taps, who is in trainer Neil Drysdale’s care after winning the McKnight Invitational at Calder. Another starter will be Frankly Perfect, making his first appearance since winning the Hollywood Turf Cup.

Ben Felton, former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board, will act as referee at a board hearing today regarding Ron Hansen. Golden Gate Fields has banned Hansen for undisclosed reasons, and the jockey’s attorney is appealing the action both in court and through the racing board.