THOROUGHBRED RACING : Rider Change Could Be Plus for Slumping Devil Diamond

A three-time winner at Del Mar but winless everywhere else, Devil Diamond loses the services of jockey Kent Desormeaux but picks up David Flores, Fairplex Park’s leading rider, for Saturday’s $100,000 Pomona Derby.

Desormeaux will be at Louisiana Downs on Saturday to ride Hawk Spell in the $750,000 Super Derby, a stake that will be part of the betting program at Fairplex.

Devil Diamond, a 3-year-old son of Devil’s Bag who races for his breeders, John and Betty Mabee, won twice at Del Mar last year, in a maiden race and the Balboa Stakes. He didn’t win again until Aug. 13, in a grass allowance at Del Mar. Away from Del Mar, trainer Gary Jones’ colt is winless in nine tries.

Flores, who has never ridden Devil Diamond, has a big lead in the standings with four days left and is a cinch to win his fifth consecutive title at Fairplex. In his first title year, 1989, he shared the championship with Corey Black and Martin Pedroza.

Boyo, who was beaten by Devil Diamond at Del Mar, goes into the 11-horse Pomona Derby after a victory last week in the Derby Trial. The post-position lineup for the 1 1/8-mile race:

Prince Aglo, I Like To Win, Boyo, Minks Law, Barton, Phoenician, Devil Diamond, Town Caper, Simply Snow Chief, Imperial Ridge and Something Nice. The high weights at 122 pounds apiece are Devil Diamond and Imperial Ridge.

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Peteski, winner of the Canadian Triple Crown and a colt who outran Sea Hero, Colonial Affair, and Kissin Kris more recently in the Molson Export Million at Woodbine, his home track in Canada, is the 8-5 favorite Saturday in the 12-horse Super Derby.

Second choice on the morning line at 3-1 is owner John Franks’ three-horse entry of Kissin Kris, Saintly Prospector and Premier Cheer. Others running are Wallenda, Foxtrail, Devoted Brass, Future Storm, Hegar, Zarbycat, El Bakan and Hawk Spell.

Besides Desormeaux aboard Hawk Spell, other local jockeys riding there will be Laffit Pincay on Devoted Brass and Pat Valenzuela on Future Storm.

Peteski, winner of six of nine starts, has run only once in the United States, finishing second in a maiden race at Keeneland in April.

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Francois Boutin, who won two Breeders’ Cup races with Miesque and one with Arazi, has another contender in Hernando, who will try to give the trainer his first victory in the Arc de Triomphe when France’s most prestigious race is run Sunday. The Arc could produce a few candidates for the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita on Nov. 6.

Hernando races for Stavros Niarchos, who also campaigned Miesque. The 3-year-old colt began his career this year and has won five of seven starts, with second-place finishes in the other races.

Trainer Andre Fabre might start five horses in the Arc, among them Intrepidity, the 3-year-old filly who has won four of five races this year. Three Arc winners--Dancing Brave, Trempolino and Subotica--have failed to win in the Breeders’ Cup, Subotica finishing fifth in the Turf last year at Gulfstream Park.

Horse Racing Notes

It made sense that Senate Appointee, who had won six in a row at Exhibition Park, the five-furlong track in Vancouver, Canada, would feel at home at the Fairplex bullring, and the 4-year-old filly extended her streak in the E.B. Johnston Stakes at the Los Angeles County Fair on Sept. 19. She beat Southern Truce by half a length that day, and the same distaffers are part of the six-horse field today at equal weights in the Las Madrinas Handicap.

Martin Pedroza, named to ride two horses at Fairplex today, isn’t expected to resume riding there until Saturday. Pedroza was hospitalized with a lacerated liver after a spill on Sept. 19. . . . Diazo, winner of the Pegasus Handicap at the Meadowlands and now a late-blooming contender for the $3-million Breeders’ Cup Classic, might run once more before the Santa Anita race, in the $850,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 16. . . . Polar Expedition, winner of the Arlington-Washington Futurity, won’t run in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. It would cost $200,000 to make him eligible.