June 2, 2016 – NTRA National Media Teleconference
Guests
- Dale Romans
- Kent Desormeaux
- Donnie Von Hemel
Click below to listen to the Teleconference
Dale Romans
Keith Desormeaux
Donnie K. Von Hemel
P R E S E N T A T I O N
Operator:
Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the NTRA Pre-Belmont Stakes Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, participants are asked to press star, one to register for a question. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Jim Gluckson. Please go ahead, sir.
Jim Gluckson:
Thank you, Michelle, and good day, everyone, and welcome to the National Thoroughbred Racing Association preview media teleconference for the 148th running of the Belmont Stakes for Saturday June 11. With us today will be Keith Desormeaux, trainer of Preakness Stakes winner and likely Belmont Stakes favorite Exaggerator, who will be joining us in a little bit; Dale Romans, who has two Belmont Stakes starters in Brody’s Cause and Cherry Wine; and later on, Donnie K. Von Hemel, who is the trainer of fourth place Kentucky Derby finisher Suddenbreakingnews.
I wanted just to make mention of the fact that today I’m substituting for Jim Mulvihill, who is still on paternity leave with his son, Francis, his newborn son, and he’s doing quite well. So, Jim will be in this place later on this year.
I just wanted to take a few housekeeping details before we get to our questions and our guests. This Belmont Stakes was first run in 1867 and is the oldest of the three Triple Crown races, and the Belmont Stakes is a part of a wonderful three-day festival here at Belmont Park. Belmont Stakes Day has 10 stakes races worth $8 million. The draw for the Belmont will be next Wednesday in New York City.
As far as everything else is concerned, NBC Sports will be televising, of course, the Belmont Stakes with a two-hour telecast on Saturday June 11, and will be previewed on—preceded on Friday with coverage at 4 p.m. from Belmont Park racing on Friday and on Saturday on NBC SN beginning at 2:30 p.m.
I think right now we can go right into our beginning here and bring in our first guest right now if we could. We’d like to speak with Dale Romans, who, of course, has Cherry Wine and Brody’s Cause in for this Belmont Stakes, and I think if we’re ready to bring in Dale we can start right now, please. Dale, good afternoon. Jim Gluckson here in New York.
Dale Romans:
Hey, good afternoon. I’m in New York also.
Jim Gluckson:
All right, man. How are you?
Dale Romans:
Good, good.
Jim Gluckson:
Good, good. I wanted to make mention of something interesting that you talked about to one of the publications earlier this week about getting a horse prepared mentally for the Belmont as much as physically, and I think you were speaking specifically about Brody’s Cause. Can you talk about that? It’s an interesting aspect about teaching horses, and I think you even broke the name Allen Jerkens in saying this.
Dale Romans:
Yes, well Allen talked to me about it with one of my first Belmont horses. You know, to go that far, they’re not out there that long usually in a race, and you just want to get them mentally ready to go a mile and a half and run for that length of period of time, which is unusual for them. So, I just like to keep them on the racetrack a lot in the morning when they’re training. You don’t have to do that much with them, don’t overdo it, but just keep them out there where they know—they’re used to being on the racetrack for the amount of time it’ll take to run the mile and a half.
Jim Gluckson:
All right. Well, just to make mention of his schedule, what is—what have you mapped out in the next few days for Brody’s Cause?
Dale Romans:
Well, I trained him pretty hard after the Derby and worked a mile Saturday. He worked very well. He shipped up to Belmont in this shape. He just jogged today. So, right now we’ll just train him to kind of normal work Saturday and go from—take it easy from there.
Jim Gluckson:
All right, well let me just jump over to Cherry Wine for a second. You were very pleased with his performance in the Preakness, and how does the race set up for him another closer for here in the Belmont? Can you talk about his development?
Dale Romans:
Well, I’m not sure, you know, we’ll have to look at it and study (inaudible) in the Preakness just to make—help him if the speed would materialize that showed up on paper, and it did. We took him—we held back and that was the plan from the jump to make one run. But this race doesn’t look like it has that kind of speed, and a mile and a half race is, you know, you need to be closer than—a lot of people think it’ll be a deep closer’s race because they want to go further, but it seems, you know, Woody Stevens used to say it was a speed horse race to go a mile and a half. You need to be out there on the pace because they’re all tired at the end. So, we may be laying a little bit closer.
Jim Gluckson:
All right. Well, Dale, we have some media on the line that would like to ask you a few questions, so if you’ll just hang in there for a second we’ll get rolling with the media questions.
Danny Brewer:
Outstanding. Let’s talk about Cherry Wine here just a second and his improvement. Fourth in the Rebel, third in the Blue Grass, second in the Preakness, so what does that mean is next, Dale?
Dale Romans:
Well, if you figure the pattern that makes him a winner, doesn’t it? He’s just gotten—he has improved…
Danny Brewer:
That’s what I’m thinking. I mean if you’re, you know, you want Tennessee guys (phon) we don’t know much, but still it’s one digit math it’s like yes. What kind of improvement have you seen…?
Dale Romans:
You pitched me a softball there and I appreciate it. He’s just getting better and better as he gets older. His father was the same way. He got—he didn’t break his maiden until February of his three-year-old year and he went on to have a—get better and better as he ran because he got older. This horse is doing the same thing. He’s just finally mentally putting it all together. So, I was real pleased with his race in the Preakness and I think he’s set and ready to go for another big race in the Belmont. I think his pedigree is probably set as much as anybody’s to go a mile and a half.
Danny Brewer:
Okay, let’s talk about the Acorn, Go Maggie Go. She’s pretty doggone good, too, now isn’t she, Dale?
Dale Romans:
She’s probably as good a filly as I’ve ever trained right now. I’d say she’s done some special things, and, you know, running back winning that Grade 2, off of, you know, three weeks rest and one start and coming back quickly off the Oaks and winning the Black-Eyed Susan. She’s done some special stuff and it’s going to be a tougher race, but she’s as good as I’ve ever had.
Danny Brewer:
Dale, appreciate your time. Wish you the best of look and look forward to seeing you soon.
Dale Romans:
Thanks, Danny. It’s always good to talk to you.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from Ron Flatter of RSN Australia. Please go ahead.
Ron Flatter:
Hey, Dale. It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of obvious pace in this race. How do you see the race setting up without that?
Dale Romans:
Well, I haven’t handicapped it that hard until after the form comes out and we see the post position. But you’re right, there’s not that much pace it doesn’t look like, and so I think both my horses may be laying a little bit closer or quite a bit closer. I know Cherry Wine will be laying a lot closer. We’re not going to go 28 lengths out of it and try to make it up on a mile and a half on this track without pace, so he’ll be laying a lot closer, and I think he can do that. I don’t think that he’s a horse that has to be way back like that, I just—that was a strategy that we thought gave him his best chance in the Preakness and it worked pretty well for him. But this—if we want to, we can be a lot closer.
Ron Flatter:
Looking at Brody’s Cause, do you just draw a line through the Derby?
Dale Romans:
I don’t think the Derby was that bad. I mean, you know, if you run seventh in the Derby and don’t get beat all that far, it’s not a bad race. It’s just, you know, it’s a tough race to win. That’s why it’s so valuable and why it’s so important and so prestigious. It’s wasn’t that bad of race. I just think—and he could improve, and the mile and a half should help him. He should get better with that. I thought he would win. You know, I actually thought he could win the Derby, and I (inaudible) the Derby; the first time I’ve ever felt like that. But I didn’t leave there that disappointed in him. I thought he put in a good effort. He didn’t have the best of trips. But that’s the case, if you’re not the much the best you’d better have the best trip because you’re going to get into trouble if you’re matching the best or up close to the pace. He came running and he finished strong, and, you know, it is what it is. He’ll run big.
Ron Flatter:
Finally, Corey and Luis will get rides?
Dale Romans:
Yes, yes, very glad to have them both back on the horses. They both know them. They both, you know, there isn’t anything wrong with either horse and glad to have them back.
Ron Flatter:
Very good. Thanks, Dale.
Dale Romans:
Yes.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from Tim Wilkin of the Albany Times Union. Please go ahead.
Tim Wilkin:
Hey, Dale. First of all, how are you feeling?
Dale Romans:
Not that good to tell you the truth, but it—they keep—the further I get away from the wreck the more things they find that have gone wrong. So but I’ll be better. Everything will heal. In three or four more weeks I should be fine.
Tim Wilkin:
A lot of medication?
Dale Romans:
Yes, quite a bit. More than I thought I would have to take and more than I’ve ever taken before. But, you know, I had—at the Preakness I started swelling up a lot and they thought I had a bruised heart, and so I had to take quite a bit of stuff and it’s got me a little knocked out. But I’ll be all right.
Tim Wilkin:
If I can just ask you your thoughts on Exaggerator, deserving favorite in this race?
Dale Romans:
Yes, very talented horse. You know, we beat him twice last year as a two-year-old, but he’s a better horse right now. I thought he looked really well going into the Preakness, and I thought, you know, Keith’s done a great job with him and I thought he just looked as good as a horse can look going into the Preakness.
Tim Wilkin:
But doesn’t—do you think he towers over the rest of this field right now?
Dale Romans:
No, because nobody’s going to tower over the field because the mile and a half is the question. It’s something no one’s done yet. He should do it with his pedigree, but I don’t think he towers over the field. I think that he’s the well-deserving favorite but he’s going to have to, you know, run and he’s going to have to run his race on a fast track and as fast like he has on the off tracks and prove that he can do it on both, which I believe he can. He’s just a talented horse. But it’s not—nobody’s going to hand this race to him. He’s going to have to run to win it. I think Keith would say the same thing. I think, you know, there’s no—there are very few horses that ever tower over the field in a Classic. Last year was a year that maybe they did, but there’s very few that do.
Tim Wilkin:
Great, Dale. Thank you. See you next week.
Dale Romans:
All right.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from Jennie Rees of Oaklawn Anywhere. Please go ahead.
Jennie Rees:
Yes, Dale, can you discuss your record in the Belmont, and have you ever had so many thirds in such a big race?
Dale Romans:
I don’t think there’s much bigger than—unless I’ve had two thirds in the Derby and four in the seven starts in the Belmont. That’s pretty, you know, I had a teacher tell me once in high school I was lost at sea, because I was just—everything I did was average, and I guess thirds are averages in Belmonts—or in Classics, so I’d like to step up and break that mold here pretty soon.
Jennie Rees:
With Cherry Wine, what’s gives you confidence that he can be as effective on—I mean I know he’s won on his—what off the turf I guess it was on a fast track, but against this kind of company on a fast surface versus a wet surface?
Dale Romans:
His race at Gulfstream was on a fast track. He ran big in that one. It was a, you know, that was a big race. I think he can run on anything. That was surprising. I thought he would be a turf horse, but he’s definitely starting out to be a dirt horse.
Jennie Rees:
Yes, but this on I guess this kind of company?
Dale Romans:
Well…
Jennie Rees:
I think—what is it you see in his action or is there anything that you, you know, because, again, we talked about this before, you said going to the Preakness that the wet track would move him up but you changed your mind on that.
Dale Romans:
No, a wet track I thought would move him up and I think it would if it hadn’t rained again maybe, but I don’t know. I just knew he would run good on a wet track, and that’s—there is a little bit of an unknown there if it was slop just like it was with the favorite. But, you know, the way he’s training he’s a very efficient mover. His father ran well on the dirt. He ran third in the Derby on a fast racetrack. So, maybe he can do the same thing. I think he will. He trains good on it and works good on it, and, you know, he’s just a solid nice horse. There’s always—there’s a lot of unknowns going into the Belmont every year; who will go the distance and the surface issues, and I had the same surface issues with Dullahan and a couple of others, but this horse acts like he’ll do anything I want him to do. I think he’ll lay closer, he’ll go from behind, he’ll do whatever we ask. I think the big thing is his pedigree; he should get the mile and a half. You know, he’s one of them that should.
Jennie Rees:
So, in that context talk about, you know, you were third with the maiden in the Belmont, and like the Derby it seems like you have to be an exceptional horse to win. The Preakness is very—tends to be very formal. The Belmont, a whole lot of horses eligible (inaudible) other than have won in, you know, the last 10, 15 years. So what is it about the Belmont? Are horses just wrung out or is it strictly the mile and a half or whether they can handle Belmont?
Dale Romans:
I think it’s strictly the mile and a half, and I think that there’s—if there’ll be—there are horses that aren’t as accomplished that run it, but they would be if they’d had more mile and a half races to run in or after the Belmont, but there just—it seems to be the only one like Nolan’s Cat. That’s the only reason I ran him is I knew that he would like the mile and a half and (inaudible). That was my first starter I think in the Belmont and he ran a good third, and he was (inaudible) and he owned the stallion, he owned the mare, and he was a nice horse, and I knew, you know, where else can you run a mile and a half with a horse you know wants to go that far?
Jennie Rees:
Yes. Okay, great. Thanks, Dale.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from Frank Angst of Blood-Horse. Please go ahead.
Fred Angst:
Hey, Dale. How are you?
Dale Romans:
Doing all right. How are you?
Fred Angst:
Pretty good. Hey, with Brody’s Cause coming in off a five week rest and Cherry Wine with the three weeks, are you comfortable with the—with that amount of time between races for each horse? Does kind of that timing work for each horse?
Dale Romans:
Yes, it’s—it’ll work well. I mean the difference with Cherry Wine is he had the rest before the Preakness and so he came into it fresh, so to turn around in three weeks isn’t going to be as big a deal as a horse, you know, that had to run hard and then ran in the Derby and then run Preakness and then run Belmont. For Brody, he’s, you know, he ran in the, you know, he ran in the Tampa and he ran in the Blue Grass and got right back into the Derby, so he probably—the five weeks should do him some good.
Fred Angst:
Yes. Thanks, Dale.
Dale Romans:
So, I think both of them will be set up just fine.
Fred Angst:
Great.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from Tom Jicha of South Florida Sun Sentinel. Please go ahead.
Tom Jicha:
Yes, hi, Dale. You’ve talked a little about pedigree. A couple of weeks ago on one of these calls, and I’m paraphrasing, Bob Baffert said that he didn’t think horses these days, few if any, are bred to run a mile and a quarter, which would go even more for a mile and a half. What are your thoughts on that?
Dale Romans:
Well, he’s probably—I’m not going to argue with anything he says. He’s a genius of this game. But he’s probably right. They aren’t bred—there’s not as many of them that are bred to go the distance. But, you know, if they’re going to go—every horse will go it’s just how fast they’ll do it. But I think my horse is bred to do the distance. He used to go back to El Prado and El Prado he was running a mile and a half with no problem, and I think that we’re one of the few that are. You know, I look through the sales and I try to find horses that will be mile and a quarter type horses and you end up with buying the grass pedigrees most of the time, because Bob’s probably right, there aren’t that many bred to go as far as they used to. But there aren’t as many races as there used to be.
Tom Jicha:
You say you look for horses that’ll go that far. What is it you look for in a horse that leads you to think that maybe this one will go the Classic distances?
Dale Romans:
Well, just the pedigrees. Just I think how their family has all run and how far the family’s gone. But, you know, (inaudible) used to be a constant and now I don’t think it’s even talked about anymore, and that’s a, you know, that was for horses who would run far. But I think they’re still running pretty fast times.
Tom Jicha:
Okay, thank you.
Dale Romans:
Okay.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from John Pricci of HorseRaceInsider.com. Please go ahead.
John Pricci:
Hey, Dale. How are you doing?
Dale Romans:
I’m doing well. How are you, buddy?
John Pricci:
Everything is okay? I wanted to ask you, you referenced that race from Florida, from Gulfstream Park, and in that race, man, he just made a—I’m talking about Cherry Wine—made a tremendous run around (inaudible); a turn of foot unlike some of the horses—unlike many of the horses that we’ve seen on the Classic trail this year. Given the tape scenario, is there a chance—you say he can go that far, so maybe what about a middle move for him and try to break the race open before the closers can get started?
Dale Romans:
Well, he might be even closer than—you know, he might be closer from the get go before the closers get going, and that might be something we try to do is put a little more speed into him, but it would get him closer. But, yes, that’s definitely a strategy but I’ll just wait and see what it looks like once the form comes out and we can look at it. Do you need a ticket this year by any chance?
John Pricci:
No, I’m down here in Florida nursing my wounds here. I wanted to ask you one more thing. Who do you project, you know, I was looking at the Derby—I mean the Belmont form, and it appears that maybe, you know, if you go back to the Preakness that Stradivari was—he was pretty rank. You know, obviously Johnny tried to kind of calm him down while also keeping the pressure on the horses who were keeping the pressure on the favorite at that time going into the backside. Do you see him as the potential pacesetter? I mean who would you guess would be on the (inaudible)?
Dale Romans:
Well, yes, he would definitely be the pacesetter I would think. You know, I thought he would be—I thought Johnny did a good job to get him to settle off of the lead in the Preakness. I think he will be the pace and the rest of us will see where we fall, you know, and how we fall out of there and how fast he’s going. If he can get the mile and a half is the question.
John Pricci:
Yes, I guess he’s…
Dale Romans:
But obviously he’s a very talented horse.
John Pricci:
But in any event, a safe trip for both of your horses and a safe trip for you once you leave the track.
Dale Romans:
Thank you, thank you. Yes, that—believe me, I’ll have my seatbelt on. Everybody else will have there’s too. It saved me.
John Pricci:
Thank you.
Dale Romans:
Yes thanks, bud.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from Richard Rosenblatt of Associated Press. Please go ahead.
Richard Rosenblatt:
Hi, Dale.
Dale Romans:
Hey.
Richard Rosenblatt:
Listen, just a quick question. Not many of us have been through a Triple Crown like last year, and so now we’re a year later and we’re going into the Belmont, and I don’t know, for you obviously it’s—you’re dealing with your horses in this race, but what do you think Belmont Day might be like I mean after last year and maybe even the year before with, you know, with Chrome and a Triple on the line?
Dale Romans:
Well, the Triple on the line and someone winning the Triple Crown was special because it’s hard to do. If it happened very often it wouldn’t be special. There wouldn’t be all the hype to go along with it. So, we’ve got to have these years where we don’t have the Triple Crown on the line where we still have a great race and we have a great card. (Inaudible) done a special job of putting the card together. This whole three days is a mini Breeders’ Cup, and it’s—the race fan is going to have a lot to look forward to, and a new race fan should come out and watch because you’ll see an emerging star come out at Belmont.
Richard Rosenblatt:
Thanks very much. Feel better.
Dale Romans:
I think it’s going to be—thank you. I think it’s going to be a great day and great weekend to race.
Richard Rosenblatt:
All right. Thanks, Dale.
Dale Romans:
Thank you.
Operator:
Thank you. The next question comes from Art Wilson, Southern California News Group. Please go ahead.
Art Wilson:
Yes, Dale, regarding Exaggerator, you mentioned that he’s a talented colt no matter what kind of track you guys race over, but you can also say that, you know, his two most visually impressive races were the Santa Anita Derby and the Preakness, which were both run over muddy, wet surfaces.