Dale Romans

Frank Fletcher Racing Operation's Rocket Can (Into Mischief) turned in his penultimate workout ahead of the May 6 GI Kentucky Derby with a five-furlong drill in 1:01.00 (11/41) at Churchill Downs Sunday. The gray colt, who broke off six lengths behind stablemate Game Warden (Tapit), completed early fractions of :12.20 and :36.60 with regular exercise rider Guelser Cardona in the saddle. He finished even with his stablemate at the wire and galloped out several lengths in front through six furlongs in 1:14.20. "It was a nice, steady work," trainer Bill...

6th-Keeneland, $99,588, Msw, 10-19, 2yo, 1 1/16m, 1:46.95, ft, 5 1/4 lengths. CYCLONE MISCHIEF (c, 2, Into Mischief--Areyoucominghere, by Bernardini) nearly wired the field at first asking, just getting nailed by a pair of closing ivals on the line to be third by three-quarters of a length at Churchill Downs Sept. 16. With an extra sixteenth to work with Wednesday, the $450,000 Keeneland September grad raced closest to pacesetter Permafrost (Frosted) into the first turn. Settled just a path off the rail for the backstretch run, Cyclone Mischief stuck a...

Multiple graded stakes winner Mr Freeze (To Honor and Serve--Heavenly Cat, by Tabasco Cat) has been retired to stud at Raimonde Farms Ltd. in Wooster, Ohio. Owned by Jim Bakke and Gerald Isbister and trained by Dale Romans, the 7-year-old chestnut retired with a 6-4-2 record in 19 starts, earning $1,595,600 over his career. "He was a gifted horse with a great mind," said Romans. "He ran with the best and we couldn't be happier about this opportunity." Mr. Freeze was a graded stakes winner at ages three, four and...

A promising group looking to punch their tickets to this season's Triple Crown in Saturday's 1 1/16-mile GIII Sam F. Davis S., awarding 'Road to the Kentucky Derby' points to the first four finishers (10-14-2-1). Looking to return to the winner's circle is Kentucky West Racing and Clarke M. Cooper's Classic Causeway (Giant's Causeway), trained by Brian Lynch. An impressive 6 1/2-length winner ahead of next-out scorer Trafalgar (Lord Nelson) in his career debut going seven furlongs at Saratoga Sept. 4, the chestnut came home third in Keeneland's GI Claiborne...

Ellis Park will host "a conversation" between Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and Eclipse Award-winning trainer Dale Romans Saturday, Aug. 14. Called "D. Wayne and Dale: A Conversation," the event will see the two charismatic personalities interview each other, tell stories, and take questions from the public. Third generation Henderson horseman John Hancock will introduce the pair. "We wanted something special for the public as a prelude to Ellis Park Derby Day," said Jeff Inman, Ellis Park's general manager. "Wayne is on the short list for the all-time...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 3rd-CD, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 5f, post time: 1:43 p.m. ET A Winchell Thoroughbreds/Steve Asmussen coupled entry receive a tepid 3-1 morning line nod in this salty looking special weight. Totalizer (Candy Ride {Arg}) is out of GSP Taxable (Tapit) from the family of GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Summerly (Summer Squall). Chileno (Gun Runner), co-owned with co-breeder Three Chimneys, was a $375,000 Keeneland September yearling. His MG1SW dam Wapi (Chi) (Scat Daddy) was Chile's champion 3-year-old filly of 2016. Wapi's now 3-year-old Curlin colt, who remains...

For many trainers around the country, their biggest practical worry from day to day isn't the patchwork quilt of medication rules and regulations, or the fear that one trainer has an unfair competitive edge over another, but whether they've enough grooms, hotwalkers and riders populating their barns to properly tend to the horses in their care. With fewer and fewer North Americans siphoning into horse racing, the sport has turned for relief, of course, with growing reliance on Central and South America--what has proven an increasingly tenuous stable of talent...

Albaugh Family Stables' Smiley Sobotka (Brody's Cause), last seen finishing second behind Keepmeinmind (Laoban) in the Nov. 28 GII Kentucky Jockey Club S., makes his sophomore debut in the 1 1/16-mile GIII Sam F. Davis S. at Tampa Bay Downs Saturday. The chestnut colt tuned up for his return to the races with a four-furlong drill in :46.81 (2/118) at Gulfstream Park last Saturday. Michael Shanley's Nova Rags (Union Rags) makes a return trip to Tampa following his win in the seven-furlong Pasco S. last time out Jan. 16. The...

As a second-generation horse trainer and Kentuckian, my entire life has been spent in Thoroughbred racing. I've seen Kentucky racing at its finest, and I've seen how quickly out-of-state competition can render us increasingly irrelevant. Right now Kentucky is at the top. But it doesn't have to stay that way. I currently have 50 employees and do business with more than 100 vendors in Kentucky alone. Without Historical Horse Racing (HHR) revenue supplementing the purses for which our horses compete, many of those jobs will have to leave the state,...

Fern Circle Stables and Three Chimneys Farm's King Fury (Curlin) is undefeated in two prior starts at Churchill Downs and tries to annex his first graded victory in Saturday's GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. A debut winner at the Louisville oval in September, the chestnut was eighth in Keeneland's GI Breeders' Futurity S. Oct. 3 before bouncing back to score in the Oct. 25 Street Sense S. Last time out, the 2-year-old finished seventh under Brian Hernandez Jr. in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Nov. 6. "He's 2-for-2 at Churchill...

8th-CD, $89K, OC100k/N2X, 3yo, 1m, 4:36 p.m. ET  'TDN Rising Star' DENNIS' MOMENT (Tiznow) makes his return to the races here. Last of eight as the 4-5 favorite after stumbling badly at the start in the 2019 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile, the GIII Iroquois S. winner has made only one start since, finishing up the track as the chalk in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream Feb. 29. The Albaugh Family Stables colorbearer's worktab includes a local five-furlong bullet in :58 1/5 (1/46) for Dale Romans Nov....

Much has been made lately in Kentucky on farms reducing stud fees in response to the blighted economy, but there's a group of stallions whose fees would have mostly dropped as a matter of course even in booming times. These are second- through fifth-year stallions; frequently, fees for horses entering their fifth season at stud as their first-crop runners turn three show particularly pronounced drops from their initial fees. A small commercial breeder contacted me the other day to discuss the reduced 2021 stud fee for a stallion whose first...