Desormeaux Brothers Team Up with Miss Southern Miss in Sorrento

Circumstances have prevented the Desormeaux brothers, Hall of Fame jockey Kent and trainer J. Keith, from combining forces with 2-year-old filly Miss Southern Miss for her first two starts.

 

But that won’t be the case when the Kentucky-bred daughter of More Than Ready takes 2-1 morning line favoritism in a field of six into Saturday’s 48^th running of the Grade II $200,000 Sorrento Stakes.

 

Flavien Prat was aboard Miss Southern Miss for a first-start victory on June 9at Santa Anita and again for  a runner-up effort in the Landaluce Stakes there on July 9.  But the jockey switch is unsurprising and understandable to racing fans.

 

“Kent was out of town for Exaggerator in the Belmont Stakes when she broke her maiden,” Keith noted here Friday morning. “Then, in the Landaluce, he was out of town for a filly of mine at Belmont.

 

“We’re not firing anybody. Prat is an excellent rider.  But I think Kent is going to fit her fine. He has been working her and we’re excited about tomorrow.”

 

Keith has raised a previously moderate profile to the national big-time level in the last two years with 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red and, this year, with Exaggerator, the Kentucky Derby runner-up and Preakness winner.

 

It’s very early, but Desormeaux has high hopes  for Miss Southern Miss.

“She’s an exceptional filly. A very sound, happy and talented horse.,” he said. “I think the last race was the result of her being startled by a bump leaving the gate and then blasting off a very fast middle quarter in 21 and change. She’d never done that before and so she tired.

 

“If she can control herself tomorrow, I think you’ll see what kind of filly I think she really is. “

 

Like the 5 ½-furlong Landaluce, the Sorrento drew a six-horse field. Miss Southern will break from the No. 2 spot stretching out to 6 ½ furlongs.

 

“We like the competition, but seeing that it’s not a full field, it should make it a tad easier,” Desormeaux said.

 

Exaggerator bounced back from an 11^th-place result in the Belmont Stakes to take the $1 million Haskell Invitational last Sunday at Monmouth Park in New Jersey when Desormeaux opted for it over the Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. Catching a sloppy track in New Jersey, Exaggerator romped, as he had done in similar conditions in the Santa Anita Derby last April.

 

“I think the right call was going to the race that set up better for him, the race with more pace.  If the pace is quick he can clock ‘em from behind. He’s a super horse.”