Best friends O'Connor, Romans get first Grade 1 wins 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.”

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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 level-headed 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 Award-winning trainer whose primary base remains at Churchill.