Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
O’Connor, Romans nab first Grade 1s as jockey agents
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rocco O’Connor and Jake Romans have been best buds since a very young age. Prior to attending the same Louisville high school together, they grew up as tots on the racetracks of Kentucky, mostly at Churchill Downs, where their fathers trained horses.
Both young men have dabbled in other professions, but the siren song of the racetrack has proved innately irresistible. Both now work as jockey agents, with O’Connor booking mounts for Robby Albarado and Romans doing the same for Joe Talamo. In a remarkable 20-minute span Saturday, pandemonium reigned when they both won their first Grade 1 races as agents – Albarado won the $1 million Preakness at Pimlico aboard 11-1 shot Swiss Skydiver, after which Talamo won the $750,000 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland on Ivar, a 14-1 shot.
“It was absolutely crazy to win a race like the Preakness surrounded by Jake and some of our other friends,” said O’Connor, 26, “and then for Jake to win right afterward was just surreal.”
“Obviously, neither of us had a right to expect to win,” said Romans, 25, “so the way it all came about was pretty neat.”
A video of O’Connor watching the tight finish of the Preakness has gone viral on social media. He contorts his body into a coil until Swiss Skydiver and Authentic hit the wire together, at which point he leaps into the air with arms outstretched, one of his shoes falling off on his second or third jump. It’s riveting theater.
Winning owners are awarded 60 percent of a purse, with jockeys being paid 10 percent of that. Agents are paid 30 percent (for some it’s 25) of the jockey’s share, so O’Connor will be receiving $18,000 and Romans $13,500. That’s reason to celebrate, although both are levelheaded enough to be shrewd with their windfalls.
“My wife and I just bought a new house, so the money’s already gone,” laughed O’Connor.
O’Connor’s father, Rob, has trained since 1985 and has mostly traveled a circuit of Tampa and New Jersey in recent years. Romans’s father, Dale, began his career in 1986 and is the 2011 Eclipse Awardwinning trainer whose primary base remains at Churchill.
Magic Attitude tops QE II
Magic Attitude, a dazzling winner as the favorite in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks in her stateside debut last month, heads a field of nine 3-year-old turf fillies in the sixth and final Grade 1 race of the Keeneland fall meet, the 37th running of the $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Saturday.
Magic Attitude arrived here Tuesday following an overnight van ride from her base at the Fair Hill Training Center in northern Maryland. Arnaud Delacour trains the Galileo filly for the Lael Stables of Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Barbaro fame.
Delacour said Magic Attitude “appreciated the firm ground” over which the Belmont Oaks was run, but it’s possible the going will be considerably different Saturday, with a 90 percent chance of showers in the forecast. Delacour said this will be the final start of the year for the English-bred filly, regardless of outcome.
From the hedge and with jockeys, this is the field for the 1 1/8-mile QE II: Harvey’s Lil Goil, Martin Garcia; Sweet Melania, Flavien Prat; Antoinette, James Graham; Magic
Attitude, Javier Castellano; Lucky Betty, Declan Cannon; Hendy Woods, Julien Leparoux; Micheline, Florent Geroux; California Kook, Tyler Gaffalione; and Red Lark, Drayden Van Dyke.
The QE II will share the Saturday spotlight with the Grade 2, $200,000 Fayette, which in normal years is run as the closing-day feature of the fall meet. This renewal comes four weeks before the Breeders’ Cup Classic and therefore is a potential stepping-stone to that Nov. 7 race at Keeneland, although none of the 10 3-year-olds and up entered in the 1 1/8-mile Fayette are listed in the initial Daily Racing Form rankings of the Classic top 10.
Mr. Big News may try turf
Mr. Big News, third in the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby, came out of his distant seventh in the Preakness last Saturday in great shape and could make his next start in an undercard stakes on Breeders’ Cup weekend (Nov. 6-7) at Keeneland, trainer Bret Calhoun said.
“We might give him a little rest, or we might look at trying the turf in the Bryan Station,” a 1 1/8-mile turf race for 3-yearolds on Nov. 6, Calhoun said. All nine prior starts for Mr. Big News, a Giant’s Causeway colt, have come over dirt.
◗ A memorial golf tournament and outing will be held next spring or summer for Rick Leigh, the longtime Kentucky racing official who died Sunday at age 73. Leigh’s stepson Tyler Picklesimer said a private service will be held in the coming days.
◗ The 12th Secretariat Festival, first held in 2008 in nearby Paris, Ky., is being held online Saturday and Sunday because of the pandemic. The full schedule of events is available at Secretariat.com.