Kent Desormeaux

Kent Desormeaux, who was taken off his mounts Friday at Belmont after failing a Breathalyzer test, will not ride Sagamore Farm's Tiger Walk in the Preakness. Sagamore manager Tom Mullikin said Ramon Dominguez will get the ride. "We just can't have that," Mullikin said Friday after watching Sagamore filly Millionreasonswhy finish second in the eighth race. "We're trying to be professional. We don't need those distractions. " Dominguez is tied for the best winning percentage among all jockeys this year (with Javier Castellano, at 25 percent)

Three weeks after winning his 500th race this year, jockey Edgar Prado is on the verge of another milestone: the 3,000th win of his career.Yesterday, Prado rode three winners at Laurel Park, leaving him one short of 3,000. Today, the 30-year-old jockey is scheduled to ride in nine of Laurel Park's 10 races -- all but the first race.Post time for the first is 12: 15 p.m. Prado's pursuit of 3,000 will commence in the second.After winning yesterday's third, fourth and seventh races for victories 2,997, 2,998 and 2,999, Prado had chances in the eighth and ninth for 3,000.

LAUREL -- It took eight months, but Kent Desormeaux has won a riding title in California.He had dominated Maryland racing and the national standings in races won for three years. Desormeaux left Maryland in March after winning three Eclipse awards and setting a record with 598 winners in a year (1989). During the time he rode here, he never lost a riding title.When Desormeaux moved to the West Coast, he expected the competition to be tougher, and it was.Monday afternoon, he finished with a flourish to be the leading jockey at the 27-day Oak Tree-at-Santa Anita meeting.

Jockey Edgar Prado reached another plateau at Laurel Park yesterday, riding four winners to move past Canadian Sandy Hawley's 515 in a year.Prado's total of 517 victories places him third on the all-time list behind Chris McCarron (546 in 1974) and Kent Desormeaux (598 in 1989) among riders campaigning in North America.With nine racing days remaining in 1997, Prado is not likely to approach Desormeaux's record, but he could challenge McCarron by averaging slightly more than three victories daily.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Two words tell the story: No whip. Not in the last quarter-mile, at least. Kent Desormeaux, the jockey of Fusaichi Pegasus, was so sure he was on the winning horse he didn't use his whip even once in the final furlongs of the Kentucky Derby yesterday at Churchill Downs. Even before "Pegasus" took the lead for good in the middle of the stretch, Desormeaux just sat back and let the colt run. Please understand. That just doesn't happen. Any jockey anywhere close to the lead in the stretch of the Derby usually beats a tattoo on the horse's side, offering a graphic portrait of just how desperately a win in America's greatest race is coveted.

In a coming episode of "Baywatch," Kent Desormeaux plays the role of a blind jockey named Corey L'Auberge."The jockey regains his sight, but is too scared to ride again until a girl he meets gives him the confidence to continue his career," Desormeaux said.No, the girl isn't the comely Pamela Anderson. "But someone even prettier," Desormeaux said.But it's Kent Desormeaux the rider, and not the actor, that Maryland racing fans will see in action tomorrow in more than $500,000 worth of stakes at Pimlico Race Course.

The situation involving the recording of workouts remains unsettled at Maryland tracks, although Laurel Race Course vice president Tim Capps said a solution should come shortly."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Arazi was officially discharged from quarantine Monday night and transferred to Barn 45 at Churchill Downs at 7 a.m. yesterday.He galloped a mile around the track with his exercise rider and groom, Raymond Lamornaca, and was in company with his constant companion, Akiko.About 100 reporters and photographers watched him train and then cool out, but three or four times that number might be out tomorrow morning, when he is expected a work about a half-mile.Head lad Fabien Gerard held an impromptu news conference and said that Arazi "is even better than [last]

ELMONT, N.Y. - -Kent Desormeaux and Calvin Borel not only took different paths around the track in Saturday's 141st running of the Belmont Stakes, with Borel going outside and Desormeaux hugging the inside, but the two jockeys also used different pre-race tactics. Desormeaux rode in a handful of early races on the card, winning three straight at one point, while Borel didn't ride until the Belmont. While Borel might have been better rested, Desormeaux said he felt as if the extra confidence he picked up from those victories helped him. He also got a good feel for the track, something Borel might not have had, considering he had not ridden in the Belmont Stakes before Saturday.

Kent Desormeaux is coming back to Pimlico Race Course.The king of the Maryland jockey colony before moving to the richer California circuit, Desormeaux will probably ride here all this week, according to his agent, Gene Short.Short reported yesterday that his client flew in from New York last night after riding In Excess in the Carter Handicap at Aqueduct and will give Best Pal his final tuneup for the Pimlico Special this morning, subject to weather conditions."He's on a couple [of horses]