Kent Desormeaux

Kent Desormeaux, born on 27 February 1970, is an American Thoroughbred jockey from a Cajun family near Maurice, Louisiana, who is in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He began as a sixteen year old apprentice at Evangeline Downs, won the Eclipse Award for outstanding apprentice jockey in 1987, and in 1989 set the United States record of 598 wins in a single year, a mark that still stands. He won the Kentucky Derby three times, on Real Quiet in 1998, Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000 and Big Brown in 2008, and the Preakness Stakes three times, but lost the 1998 Triple Crown by a nose when Real Quiet was beaten in the Belmont Stakes. He won that race later, on Summer Bird in 2009, and took five Breeders' Cup races. He reached his 6,000th career win in January 2019.