Tag: Rombauer

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas (right on his exercise pony) takes aim at his record-tying seventh Preakness Stakes title with filly Secret Oath. The Kentucky Oaks winner would be the seventh filly to win the second jewel of the Triple Crown. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Breaking Down the 2022 Preakness Stakes: More Filly Follies?

The 2022 Preakness Stakes comes to you with a paradox, a wagering quandary that pits one 21st century trend against one 2020s trend. The trend this century is the friend to chalk. Since 2000, 10 favorites found the Pimlico Race Course winner’s circle. Oxbow at 15.40/1 in 2013 is the […]

Santa Anita Handicap winner Express Train rides into Saturday's Grade 2 Californian Stakes at Santa Anita Park with a three-race winning streak. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Big ‘Cap Winner Express Train Roars Into Next Stop: The Californian

The rolling freight train that is Express Train makes another stop Saturday in Santa Anita Park’s Grade 2 Californian Stakes. That’s one of the featured events of the California track’s return to racing after a week’s planned hiatus between its Winter and Spring meets. The last time we saw Express […]

Rombauer reeling in and rolling past Midnight Bourbon in last year's Preakness Stakes was one of the top stories of 2021's racing season. We'll know who picks up the Preakness baton for 2022 May 21 at Pimlico Race Course. (Image: Skip Dickstein)

Pimlico’s Preakness Weekend Schedule: Two Days, 16 Stakes

Pimlico Race Course announced the schedule for the May 20-21 Preakness weekend: a slate featuring 16 stakes – 10 graded – worth $3.8 million. Headlining that weekend, of course, is the 147th running of the $1.5 million Preakness Stakes, the second jewel of America’s Triple Crown for 3-year-olds. The 1 […]

Rombauer won the 2021 Preakness Stakes at 11/1. He was retired Monday after chronic ankle injuries prevented his comeback. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Preakness Champion Rombauer Retired After Chronic Ankle Injuries

Rombauer, who shocked the racing world when he captured the 2021 Preakness Stakes, was retired from racing on Monday, prematurely ending one of the more eclectic racing stories of 2021. According to the Daily Racing Form, which received a release from Rombauer’s owner, John Fradkin, the colt suffered a training […]

After recent workouts didn't meet his approval, trainer Mike McCarthy decided Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer needed a freshening. So he's giving his prize colt the next 60 days off. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

Preakness Winner Rombauer Taking a Break, Won’t Race Until 2022

Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer will take the next 60 days off and won’t race for the duration of the 2021 season, according to the Daily Racing Form. Trainer Mike McCarthy told the DRF that Rombauer hadn’t been training “as sharp as he was before the Preakness and Belmont.” That June […]

Jockey Luis Saez won Saturday's Belmont Stakes for his first Triple Crown victory. He piloted 6/5 favorite Essential Quality to his third stakes win in 2021. (Image: Wendell Cruz/USA Today Sports)

Essential Quality Seizes His Moment, Wins 2021 Belmont Stakes

As the 153rd Belmont Stakes hit its stretch crescendo, Essential Quality would not be denied. At the end of this Triple Crown season, Essential Quality would not be denied his Triple Crown race victory. He would not be denied his place in history and trainer Brad Cox would not be […]

Hot Rod Charlie hit the board in his last five races: two wins, a second and two thirds. Four of those came in graded stakes races, making him a legitimate Belmont Stakes threat. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Back to Being a Real Test: Breaking Down the 2021 Belmont Stakes

The 153rd Belmont Stakes wraps up an unpredictable 2021 Triple Crown season with what should be the best race of the three for horseplayers. If 12/1 Medina Spirit winning the Kentucky Derby was a shock to the handicapper’s system, what was 11/1 Rombauer winning the Preakness Stakes? Two horses considered […]

Essential Quality's Blue Grass Stakes wire victory over Highly Motivated was the Champion 2-Year-Old's fifth consecutive win. After finishing fourth in the Kentucky Derby, the colt seeks to rebound as the 2/1 morning-line favorite in the 153rd Belmont Stakes. (Image: Kentuckyderby.com)

Essential Quality Returns to Triple Crown Trail as Belmont Stakes Favorite

Essential Quality duplicated the favorite status he enjoyed for the Kentucky Derby five weeks ago, taking 2/1 morning-line favorite odds into Saturday’s 153rd Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park. Tuesday morning’s Belmont Stakes draw put the Brad Cox-trained, Tapit progeny in post 2. He’s one of four Grade 1 winners and […]

With his Kentucky Derby-champion mount Medina Spirit out, John Velazquez will ride Rombauer in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. (Image: AP File Photo)

Velazquez Takes Rombauer’s Reins for the Belmont, No Midnight Bourbon

With no Medina Spirit, Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will take Rombauer’s reins for the June 5 Belmont Stakes. The Daily Racing Form reported that trainer Mike McCarthy grabbed Velazquez’s services for the Belmont. He’ll take the reins from Flavien Prat, who returned to the horse he rode in […]

If Flavien Prat celebrates after the Belmont, he'll do it on a different horse than Preakness winner Rombauer. Prat takes the reins of Hot Charlie for the Belmont Stakes. He rode Hot Rod Charlie in the Kentucky Derby. (Image: Patrick Smith/Getty)

Belmont Musical Jockeys: Prat Trades Rombauer for Hot Rod Charlie

Trainer Doug O’Neill, who proved his nimbleness by quickly securing Flavien Prat’s jockey services for the Kentucky Derby, proved them once again for the Belmont Stakes. He said Prat will ride the Derby’s third-place runner in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. That, of course, means Michael McCarthy needs to find […]

Midnight Bourbon could be one of only two horses to run all three 2021 Triple Crown races.(Image: AP Photo)

Belmont Stakes Field Remains in Flux as Connections Ponder Options

While the Belmont Stakes field remains an early work in progress, several trainers with possible sights on the final jewel of the Triple Crown have either indicated interest or put their horses through workouts with that June 5 race in mind. The Belmont Stakes field of possibles starts with Kentucky […]

Rombauer trainer Mike McCarthy, jockey Flavien Prat and owners John and Diane Fradkin hoist the Woodlawn Vase replica after Rombauer's Preakness Stakes victory Saturday. The colt heads to Belmont Park for a likely date in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. (Image: AP Photo/Will Newton)

Rombauer Comes out of Preakness Well, Belmont Stakes Likely Next

While Rombauer’s trainer, Mike McCarthy, headed west back to his California base, his newly minted Preakness Stakes champion left Pimlico Race Course early Monday morning for a northerly destination. That destination? New York’s Belmont Park. “We will go ahead and go to Belmont. We will get there and see how […]

Rombauer and Flavien Prat captured the 146th Preakness Stakes with a closing flourish that belied their 11/1 odds. It was Prat's second Triple Crown race victory, following his promoted Kentucky Derby win aboard Country House in 2019. (Image: AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Improbable Rombauer Turns in a Vintage Preakness Performance

Rombauer, the horse named after a vineyard, now goes by the new name: Preakness Stakes champion. And Rombauer, the horse named after the Napa Valley vineyard, wasn’t supposed to run the Preakness because he wasn’t supposed to run the race that got him into the Preakness. He wasn’t supposed to […]

It's been a wild week for Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness Stakes morning-line favorite Medina Spirit. But the colt has no idea what controversy is. (Image: Maryland Jockey Club)

It’s Been A Spirited Week: Breaking Down the 2021 Preakness Stakes

Before we break down the field for the second jewel of the Triple Crown, we’ll dispense with the news everyone waited for concerning Saturday’s 146th Preakness Stakes from Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. Both Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit and Concert Tour passed their three pre-race drug tests, meaning they […]

Even as the field begins forming, Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun remains a maybe for the May 15 Preakness Stakes. (Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Preakness Plans Begin Taking Shape; Cox Remains on the Fence

As Brad Cox ponders his Preakness plans with Kentucky Derby runner-up Mandaloun and fourth-place finisher Essential Quality, the Preakness field is taking shape around him. Maryland Jockey Club stakes coordinator Trish Bowman put out a preliminary list of prospects for the May 15 second leg of the Triple Crown. That […]

Rombauer won't run the May 1 Kentucky Derby. But expect to see him two weeks later in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico. (Image: Zoe Metz Photography)

Panadol, Rombauer Become Latest Kentucky Derby Defectors

Kentucky Derby watchers can scratch Panadol and Rombauer off their proposed tickets, after connections for the two horses said they won’t run the May 1 Derby. Both horses had guaranteed spots. Panadol had 40 points and the supplemental Triple Crown fee behind him. Rombauer was originally outside the initial 40-point […]

Hidden Stash has a likely Kentucky Derby berth, courtesy of trainer Chad Brown selecting only one of his two Derby qualifiers to run at Churchill Downs. (Image: Coady Photography)

Brown’s Choice Puts Derby Dominoes Into Play

The Kentucky Derby dominoes continued to fall on Wednesday as we head toward the May 1 Run for the Roses, with Chad Brown saying he intends on running only one of his two Derby prospects — Highly Motivated or Crowded Trade — in the race. Brown told Blood-Horse that Highly […]

Super Stock reeled in a Kentucky Derby spot by reeling in Caddo River (2) and heavy favorite Concert Tour in the Arkansas Derby. (Image: Coady Photography)

Kentucky Derby Points Show the 20 Survivors of the Derby Trail

The Kentucky Derby Trail ended Saturday, which means it’s time to parse the Derby qualifying points ladder and see who’s in, who’s on the bubble, and who won’t be discussed as a Kentucky Derby starter. It took 40 points to make the top 20, the usual target number connections shoot […]

By the time Essential Quality finds the stretch, few of his pursuers are this close. He enters Saturday's Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland as the 3/5 morning-line favorite. (Image: Coady Photography)

This Year’s Blue Grass Stakes Come Loaded With Essential Quality

The biggest problem horseplayers have with the Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes is not figuring out who will win. That essential question will likely be answered by 3/5 favorite Essential Quality. No. The biggest issue here is figuring out how to profit off a race where one horse is so […]

Rombauer's furious El Calmino Real Derby stretch drive brought him his first stakes title by a nose over Javanica. But the Southern California colt is in deeper Derby prep waters in this weekend's Grade 2 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. (Image: Golden Gate Fields)

For Rombauer, the Grass is Greener in Baffert-Free Blue Grass

In his past life, John Fradkin, the owner of Kentucky Derby Trail runner Rombauer, was a successful institutional bond salesman for Citigroup. This means he understands the risk/reward dynamic as well as anyone. This, in turn, explains why Fradkin took the long way home for Rombauer. Instead of running him […]