Desormeaux Spoils Borel's Guarantee

NEW YORK -- The other Cajun jockey, the one who didn't follow Paris Hilton on Letterman's couch, the one who spent the week heeding Belmont's killer track rather than offering bold guarantees, wasn't about to holler, "Told you so."

Kent Desormeaux had said Calvin Borel was naïve of the circumstances -- meaning he had no real experience with how Belmont's mile-and-a-half oval tended to be racing's Bermuda Triangle -- and when Borel promised that his mount, Mine That Bird, would win the third leg of the Triple Crown and spin Borel into racing history, well, Desormeaux noted that Borel might want to keep those things to himself.

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But now, after riding Summer Bird to an upset win in Saturday's Belmont Stakes, Desormeaux understood how Borel might have been, shall we say, exuberant at the prospect of going where no jockey had gone before. "I think that you start to feel like superman, you feel invincible. I guarantee you he went into the race with that utmost feeling he could not lose, and I wouldn't want anybody any different on my horse," Desormeaux was saying following the headiest two minutes, 27.54 seconds he's ever spent being dragged around a racetrack.

To hear Desormeaux describe it, he merely jumped atop Summer Bird and whispered "Go", then sat back as the chestnut pulled away for a 2 3/4-length victory over Dunkirk. Mine That Bird was third in the field of 10, a neck behind. Borel might have failed to become the first jockey to sweep the Triple Crown on different horses, but the Belmont wasn't all dashed hopes. Desormeaux, after suffering some heartbreaking attempts, finally won America's most grueling race.

"Instead of staying three or four lengths behind a horse where his nose gets filled with sand, I tried to stick it up behind somebody so he could get his full breath. Instead of the sand pelting him in the nose, it was going under his belly. Those little things I tried to accomplish at the Big Sandy here at Belmont. The reality, I mounted," Desormeaux said with a weary smile. "Tim (Ice, the rookie trainer) had the horse breathing fire. I was able to steer him around the racetrack."

Desormeaux wasn't interested in joining the chorus questioning his fellow Louisianan's strategy. That, of course, will be the theme of many story lines, because Borel and his cowboy trainer Chip Woolley and their little, spectacular gelding had been orbiting fairyland from the moment Mine That Bird smashed 50-1 odds and won the Kentucky Derby.

They came back to earth hard, no surprise to the railbirds who have witnessed Belmont sink too many promises and sure things. Mine That Bird was sent off as a 6-5 favorite, his jockey delightfully cocky. Summer Bird was an 11-1 afterthought, his jockey the winner on most every track but one. Before Saturday, Desormeaux had captured three Derbies and two Preaknesses, but never Belmont, which is called the "Test of Champions" for a reason.


In one of those cozy racing non-coincidences, Summer Bird and Mine That Bird have the same father: they were both sired by Birdstone, best known for winning the 2004 Belmont and denying Smarty Jones the Triple Crown. Desormeaux and Borel share similar Cajun roots, though Desormeaux now lives practically around the corner from Belmont, in Garden City, and his accent is more east coast-cosmopolitan than thick-as-gumbo charm. If Borel hadn't been so immersed in the sudden celebrity that came his way after he won the Derby and then the Preakness (aboard wondrous filly Rachel Alexandra), he might have paid more attention to Desormeaux's warnings about the horrors of Belmont.

Remember last year when Big Brown, Desormeaux's mount, won both the Derby and the Preakness, prompting trainer Rick Dutrow to brag how the horse couldn't possibly lose Belmont? He was the favorite, despite a small crack on his left front foot, but Big Brown never finished the taxing race, as Desormeaux eased the horse up in the home stretch after noticing something amiss. Desormeaux repeated the cautionary tale more than a few times this week even as Borel, a novice to Belmont, refused to back away from his guarantee.

"Last year's Belmont was like swallowing a spoon sideways, what a pill to swallow," said Desormeaux, who in 1998 had a Triple Crown bid with Real Quiet, but made his move too soon and was beaten by Victory Gallop's nostril.

The last time the public saw Mine That Bird, he was making a hard charge at Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness, before finishing a length behind. Now, on this blissfully clear afternoon following a day of severe rain, Mine That Bird was exceptionally frisky in the paddock, working up a high gloss before he walked through the tunnel.

"I was a little concerned with the horse when he went to the holding barn today. He was a hair more, a little more amped than he had been previous races, you know. Maybe I had him a hair too fresh. Maybe I should have done something different when we got here," Woolley, the trainer, said later.

Mine That Bird pulled into contention early, perhaps too early, before making a bold move outside and taking a brief lead over Dunkirk, the pace setter. This was far different than Mine That Bird's worst-to-first, kiss-the-rail brilliance at the Derby. Here he fought his jockey, taking the turn into the backstretch with a whoosh. The crowd roared, anticipating history, but, as usual, Belmont's punishing marathon had other designs.

"Colt run the race," Borel said, when someone asked if he regretted predicting Mine That Bird would be first across the line. "He run like I thought he would. I can't take nothing away from him. I love the horse to death. He's an animal like a human being, just like me."

Borel's post-race synopsis focused mostly on the three-year-old bay, rather than human tactics. In a tug-and-pull between horse and human, the beast usually gets its way.

"When I moved him, I was happy to get over a little bit, save a little ground, no excuses. He run his eyeballs out," Borel said. "We just got outrun, sir. It's been a hard trip, a hard run. The colt's tried every time he run. You can't take nothing away from him. Like I said, maybe might have moved a little tad early. But he took me there. Nothing I would have took away from the horse."

Desormeaux spent much of the race in "an armchair ride" after Summer Bird "broke like a rocket." At the last minute, Ice, the trainer who Saturday turned 35, added blinkers to Summer Bird, an adjustment Desormeaux noticed made a difference at the gate. "I mean, he was toey, dancing, just that bit of energy that tells you, `Let me at 'em, let me at 'em, I can't wait to get to them. I want to be a racehorse'," said the jockey.

He didn't pay attention to Mine that Bird until the 5/16 pole, concentrating on his own inside trip and keeping the sand flowing under Summer Bird's belly. "When I did pick him up, I was a little bit disappointed. I was like, how am I going to catch him? He's already in front of me," Desormeaux said. "But when I did get that opportunity, this colt just laid down and took off. He really exploded the last, probably 500 yards, and there was never any doubt turning for home after he changed his leads."

The two Cajun jockeys, friends for decades, prepared differently for the lengthy race. Borel was a media darling from the moment he hit New York earlier in the week, ringing the bell to start trading on Wall Street, chatting with David Letterman, gladly speaking into any microphone before his face. The hours before he saddled Mine That Bird were spent relaxing in the clubhouse, with cameras following every move.

Desormeaux, a Belmont survivor, took three mounts early Saturday, winning them all. By the time he saddled Summer Bird, Desormeaux was flying high, the memory of last year's spoon being swallowed sideways still fresh.

"I carried that with me," he said. "You don't know what this place can do to you until you've gone through it. It can be a wild monster."

It can be a magical ride, for those who manage to conquer it.