Desormeaux barn heating up

It was in 2014 and 2015 that trainer Keith Desormeaux shifted his operation out of his native Louisiana and into Southern California. Now, Desormeaux is moving back in the other direction. He has only a handful of horses in California this winter and a string of 25 at Fair Grounds, up from about 15 last season.

The New Orleans wing of the stable is off to a strong start. Through Thursday’s races, Desormeaux had a meet record of 5-3-2 from a total of 15 runners. During the 2019-20 Fair Grounds season – his first in several years with stalls at the track – he won seven races from 45 starters.

“I have significantly less now in California. I’m trying my best to hang in there. My California clientele has lessened, which has necessitated me concentrating on the Midwest,” Desormeaux said.

The recent winners mainly have come in claiming races with horses like Cayman Cobra, who runs back in a $5,000 starter-allowance race with a $10,000 claiming option, race 7 on the Sunday card. Under the care of a different trainer, Caymans Cobra lost his last two starts by about 60 combined lengths before departing California. Desormeaux dropped him all the way down to a $5,000 claiming sprint, got a four-length win, and for now, at least, has a $5,000 starter-allowance horse. Caymans Cobra goes sprint to route and dirt to turf, and his three best California races during 2019 and 2020 were turf routes.

“The horse was in such poor form when I got him that even though he was training okay I didn’t know if he’d run well or not,” Desormeaux said. “Different circumstance might have picked his head up, and now that we’ve got him starter-eligible, why not give it a try.”

Desormeaux’s only recent graded stakes win came at Del Mar in August, when 2-yearold filly My Girl Red won the Sorrento Stakes. She was badly hampered at the start of the Del Mar Debutante, which led to a poor performance, and My Girl Red came out of the race with an ankle injury. The problem required rest but no surgery, and My Girl Red should join Desormeaux’s stable at Fair Grounds in early January.

Knicks Go works, for Pegasus?

Knicks Go, smashing winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile in his most recent start, has settled into trainer Brad Cox’s string in New Orleans and had his first local work when he went an easy half-mile on Dec. 13.

Cox said that 2021 plans for Knicks Go, who got a 108 Beyer Speed Figure in the Dirt Mile, haven’t been set, but one race under consideration is the Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 23 at Gulfstream Park. That race is contested at 1 1/8 miles, and while Knicks Go has proven capable at 1 1/16 miles, he’s yet to race over a distance any longer than that. Knicks Go, owned by the Korea Racing Authority, is by Paynter out of Kosmo’s Buddy, by Outflanker.