Desormeaux still deciding next move for BC Juvenile winner Texas Red

NEW ORLEANS – On a recent morning on the Fair Grounds backstretch, trainer Keith Desormeaux was stopped a few times by colleagues congratulating him for winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with Texas Red.

“This is the area that I’ve frequented the most,” said Desormeaux, 47, who is from Maurice, La., and has made Fair Grounds his winter base for many years. “To see a guy like me sneak up there and win such an important race, it’s fun. It’s what we bust our ass for.”

Desormeaux, who runs mainly a blue-collar operation, hit a home run when Texas Red rallied from last to first to win the $2 million Juvenile on Nov. 1 at Santa Anita Park by 6 1/2 lengths. A son of Afleet Alex and the Jeune Homme mare Ramatuelle, Texas Red was a $17,000 yearling purchase. Desormeaux, who picked him out at the 2013 Keeneland September yearling sale, is a co-owner, too.

For now, the bargain colt remains at Santa Anita, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Texas Red come to Fair Grounds to run in a Kentucky Derby prep race.

“There are no definitive plans yet, but I would say he’ll be down here for one of the races,” Desormeaux said.

The local series for Derby hopefuls is comprised of the mile-and-70-yard Lecomte on Jan. 17, the 1 1/16-mile Risen Star on Feb. 21, and the 1 1/8-mile Louisiana Derby on March 28.

Desormeaux, who won 19 races at the last Fair Grounds meet, tying for 10th in the trainers’ standings, said he has a 24-horse string here this season. With 12 horses at Santa Anita, he’ll be doing lots of traveling.

“Since we left Fair Grounds last year, we went to Keeneland with half [our stable] and Evangeline Downs with the other half,” Desormeaux said. “I’ve been going back and forth all year.”

Texas Red gave Desormeaux his first Grade 1 win. His first graded victory came when Ive Struck a Nerve won the Grade 2 Risen Star at 135-1 odds in 2013. Ive Struck a Nerve subsequently fractured a sesamoid in a workout, knocking him off the Kentucky Derby trail. He never returned to racing and recently was retired to stud at Peach Lane Farms in Opelousas, La.

Ardoin back in New Orleans

Ronald Ardoin, a standout jockey at Fair Grounds from the late 1970s through the early 2000s, has come back to New Orleans as the agent for veteran jockey Chris Rosier.

“I haven’t been here for 12 years,” Ardoin said. “It brings a lot of old memories back. I’ve seen a lot of people I haven’t seen for quite a while.”

Ardoin, who rode 5,226 winners in a 30-year career that ended in 2003, won six Fair Grounds riding titles and finished second in the local standings five times. He ranks 23rd nationally in career wins by a jockey.

Rosier rode at Delta Downs in recent winters. He finished third in the Delta standings in the 2013-2014 season and second in 2012-2013.

“I really believe in him,” Ardoin said. “We’ve done well, rode plenty of winners. But different opportunities came up here.”

Rosier will be riding first call for trainer Karl Broberg and also will have business with trainer Bret Calhoun, Ardoin said.

Rosier said Ardoin serves as both an agent and coach.

“I get the best of both worlds,” Rosier said. “He’s been there and done that.”

Familiar face in stewards’ stand

Retired trainer Hal Wiggins, who is best known for winning the Kentucky Oaks with Rachel Alexandra in 2009, is back working in racing as a rookie steward at Fair Grounds.

“I thought I might like this,” said Wiggins, who went to stewards’ school in Louisville, Ky., in 2007, two years before he retired from training. “Someone told me, ‘You’re the oldest bug boy in Louisiana.’ ”

Wiggins, 71, won 872 races in more than 30 years as a trainer. He developed Rachel Alexandra as a 2-year-old and trained her through the Kentucky Oaks, which she won by 20 1/4 lengths. A few days after that race, owners Dolphus Morrison and Mike Lauffer sold her to Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stable and Harold McCormick, and she was sent to trainer Steve Asmussen.

“When I saw that big rear end leaving the barn, that was something I would never want to experience again,” Wiggins said.

Morrison’s and Lauffer’s generosity after the sale enabled Wiggins to retire, he said. For the past five years, Wiggins was an adviser for Legacy Bloodstock at horse sales in Louisiana, Texas, and Kentucky.

“I love being around the horses,” said Wiggins, who spent many meets at Fair Grounds. “I’ve renewed so many acquaintances in the week and a half I’ve been here.”