At Del Mar, One Door Closes, Another Opens

For years, the cacophony at entry-taking time in the Del Mar racing office would be arrested by racing secretary Tom Knust’s cry: “OK, all you jocks agents out of here.”

Now, on Del Mar’s 62nd opening day, Knust finds himself on the other side of the counter in the same office.

“It’s going to feel strange,” Knust said. “When I hear Tom Robbins shouting the same thing, I’ll be included.”

They used to be a team at Del Mar, Robbins the director of racing and Knust the racing secretary, but now Robbins wears both hats and Knust, who lost his front-office job at the end of the 1999 season, has moved on, first to an executive position with an ill-fated racing Web site, then as an agent for jockey Kent Desormeaux, whose brilliant career has taken some intriguing recent turns of its own.

Without saying so, Knust surely knows that he’s on the spot. In another time, Desormeaux would have been a plum, a rider with agents hither and yon pounding on his door, but after leaving California for a successful two-month stint in Japan this spring, he needs to rejuvenate his U.S. business. Winner of 4,000 races and a three-time riding champion at Del Mar, Desormeaux had 10 mounts the first two days of last year’s meet, eventually finishing second to Victor Espinoza in the standings, but today and Thursday he’s scheduled to ride only four. Race-riding endures as a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately game, in which the loyalties of horse owners and trainers can be sometime things.

“I know it’s going to take a while to build up Kent’s business,” Knust said. He’s almost 54 and a racetrack lifer, but still a rookie agent in what is arguably the most competitive jockey colony in the country. Around the track for 33 years--that first year as a hotwalker at Santa Anita was follow-up therapy for combat injuries suffered in Vietnam--ex-Marine Knust knows most of the players; it’s just that he’s switched from the supply to the demand side of the equation.

Before Frank Stronach bought Santa Anita in 1998, Robbins and Knust were inseparable in that track’s racing office as well. But when Lonny Powell left Turf Paradise to replace Cliff Goodrich as president, he brought most of his staff from the Phoenix track to Santa Anita, and Robbins and Knust, with about 50 years of service between them, didn’t survive. Neither did Powell, it turned out; he and Stronach parted company late last year.

Knust could be bitter, but he doesn’t seem to be.

“I understood what Lonny wanted,” he said. “His reasoning was that he would be more comfortable working with people that surrounded him at Turf Paradise, and I was able to accept that. That eventually opened up a year-round job for Tom at Del Mar, where they took some of the money they were paying me to boost his contract. Tom Robbins has been a friend for a long time and he still is. I wouldn’t have had many of the opportunities I’ve had if it hadn’t been for Tom.”

Earlier this year, Desormeaux and veteran agent Tony Matos split.

“A long time ago I had thought about becoming a jock’s agent, but the right rider never came along,” Knust said. “You need the right combination. Kent is one of the best--he’s been at the top in the East, in California and internationally. Our philosophies are the same. Kent wants to be on top, and he’s willing to work horses in the mornings to help get himself there. He’s got both the talent and the desire going for him.”

Desormeaux, 31, won the 1998 Kentucky Derby with Real Quiet and missed by a nose a sweep of the Triple Crown. He also won the 2000 Derby with Fusaichi Pegasus. This year in Japan, where the racing is mostly on weekends and the purse money obscene, Desormeaux was wired to the leading stable and won more than 30 races--becoming the first foreign jockey to ride the winner of a Group I race there--as his horses earned $7 million. When he left in late April, he ranked 10th in the U.S. with about $2.3 million in purses. Right now, only three U.S. jockeys--Jerry Bailey, Jorge Chavez and Pat Day--have registered more than $7 million in purses.

Desormeaux has three mounts today, including Dancing Master, an Irish-bred colt who’s entered in the first division of the Oceanside Stakes. Horses that Desormeaux can expect to ride back include Astra and Sumitas. On June 24, Desormeaux blew in from Japan to win the Beverly Hills Handicap at Hollywood Park with the Simon Bray-trained Astra, whose next test will be the Beverly D at Arlington Park on Aug. 18. On July 8, Desormeaux was at Delaware Park, winning the Caesar Rodney Handicap with Sumitas, a Bobby Frankel trainee.

The stakes races are the gravy, the countless races in between the grunt work for a jockey’s agent.

“Jock agents work hard,” Knust said. “It’s a very competitive game, and there are some very good agents out there. I know I’m going to be working my tail off.”

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Del Mar Summer Season

Dates: 43-day season, today through Sept. 5. Racing every day but Tuesdays.

Post times: First race 2 p.m., except 4 p.m. on Friday and July 27, Aug. 3, 10 and 17; 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 24 and 31; and 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 19.

Major races: $400,000 Ramona Handicap, Saturday; $200,000 Bing Crosby Breeders’ Cup Handicap, Sunday; $400,000 Eddie Read Handicap, July 28; $250,000 San Diego Handicap, July 29; $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Handicap, Aug. 5; $300,000 Del Mar Oaks, Aug. 18; $1-million Pacific Classic, Aug. 19; $250,000 Del Mar Handicap, Aug. 25; $250,000 Del Mar Debutante, Aug. 26; $250,000 Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap, Sept. 2; $300,000 Del Mar Derby, Sept. 3; $250,000 Del Mar Futurity, Sept. 5.

Tickets: (858) 792-4242.