Front and center on John Fradkin’s Twitter profile is a quote: Everyone should make at least one bet every day; otherwise, you might be walking around lucky and not even know it. Fradkin has gotten plenty lucky with his bets, both as a handicapper, which was his introduction to the sport of racing, and as an owner and breeder with his wife, Diane. Most recently, a series of lucky breaks over the last year led to the Fradkins campaigning homebred Rombauer to a victory in the Preakness Stakes. The colt looks to add another classic in the Belmont Stakes this Saturday. :: DRF's Belmont Stakes Headquarters: Contenders, latest news, past performances, analysis, and more The Fradkins primarily run their small breeding operation as a commercial enterprise, and thus the young Rombauer was originally intended for sale. The colt was sent to trainer and consignor Eddie Woods in Ocala, Fla., to prepare for the 2020 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s spring sale of 2-year-olds in training, which was scheduled for mid-April. But as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States a month before the sale, Woods became skeptical that the sale would occur as scheduled; indeed, it was eventually postponed by several months. He suggested that the Fradkins send the colt to the races with the goal of selling him once he was proven. They took the advice, and sent him to Michael McCarthy, who unveiled him on July 25 in a one-mile maiden on the Del Mar turf. The colt rallied to win – but due to a malfunction with Del Mar’s timer was credited with the mile in a lackluster 1:38.30, keeping him from attracting much attention. “Those were two very lucky breaks,” John Fradkin said. “If the OBS April sale had gone off as normal, we probably would have gone down there with a $100,000 reserve, hoped to get $200,000, and sold him for $120,000. If the clock hadn’t malfunctioned, we probably would have had a $250,000 offer, and probably would have sold him.” Rombauer went winless in three more starts as a juvenile, although he did flash top-level ability when second in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes at Santa Anita, beaten less than a length. “After he ran on dirt in the American Pharoah, there were substantially higher offers, but at that point, I thought we were seeing something special,” Fradkin said. “After the Grade 1 placing on dirt, I was thinking, this might be a Grade 1 horse on turf someday. Perhaps he’s like a Catholic Boy or a War of Will or his dam’s sire, Cowboy Cal, a horse that can run on any surface.” Besides the growing sense that the colt was showing special ability, there was another factor in not accepting an offer on Rombauer. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales “The biggest offer after that race was an offer that would have moved the horse away from Michael McCarthy, and I didn’t feel good about that,” Fradkin said. “There were some friendly offers within the barn, but they weren’t as high as the highest offer, and the highest offer, the horse would leave the barn.” That loyalty and value for relationships has been a hallmark for the Fradkins, of Santa Ana, Calif., as they have developed their Thoroughbred operations. John, a former institutional bond salesman, and Diane, a partner in a development company, were married on Nov. 6, 1993 – the same day that John and his coworkers were chasing a pick seven on the Breeders’ Cup card, and were foiled by $269.20 winner Arcangues in the final leg, the Classic. Earlier that same year, John Fradkin had claimed the gelding Ruff Hombre, hoping a deeper involvement with the sport would lend him some insights for his handicapping. He invested the winnings from Ruff Hombre’s victory at Del Mar that summer at the 1993 Keeneland September yearling sale, purchasing the filly Ultrafleet for $10,500. Ultrafleet went winless in four starts, but turned out to be the foundation mare for the Fradkins’ small commercial breeding operation. Ultrafleet produced graded stakes winners Cambiocorsa and California Flag and graded-placed Shadow Raider, and is the granddam of Rombauer and graded stakes winners Moulin de Mougin and Schiaparelli. She also is the great-granddam of European Horse of the Year Roaring Lion. Loyalty to another associate in the business led to the conception of one of Ultrafleet’s stars. While Ultrafleet was boarded at Keith Card’s Hi Card Ranch in California, John Fradkin planned to skip a year in her production. “Keith heard that, and said, ‘You’re not gonna breed her, you mind if I breed her?’ ” Fradkin recalled. “He’s such a nice guy, and he treated us like family, so I [agreed]. … After the foal was born and he was registering the foal, he called and said, ‘John, should I make you co-breeder?’ ” I said, ‘Keith, you bred her, you paid the stud fee, you’re the breeder.’ ” Card died in 2011 – but before that, he got to experience thrills in racing as the breeder of millionaire California Flag, winner of the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Through his association with Card, Fradkin also became friends with his ranch manager Scott Siler. Siler now is the manager at Peacefield Farm, a rehab facility in California. The Fradkins send their lay-ups from the track there and have introduced McCarthy’s program to Siler. “It takes a team,” Fradkin said. “It’s a pretty tough business.” McCarthy himself was out on his own for about a year after leaving the employ of Todd Pletcher when his relationship with the Fradkins began after they were referred to him. “They’re passionate about it,” said McCarthy, who also trains for the couple Rombauer’s older half-brother Cono, a stakes-placed gelding. “They make informed decisions, to say the least. They put a lot of time and effort into it.” There was a period this spring where the relationship was contentious. After Rombauer won the El Camino Real Derby and finished third in the Blue Grass Stakes, the owner and trainer had what Fradkin called “a pretty heated discussion” over bypassing the Kentucky Derby for the Preakness. Rombauer had amassed enough points to make the Kentucky Derby field and had earned a fees-paid berth to the Preakness with his El Camino victory. Fradkin thought Rombauer might be in a better spot in the Preakness, with Derby entrants bypassing the race to await the Belmont. “I was bullish on running the horse in the Kentucky Derby,” McCarthy said after the Preakness. “I had mentioned it a couple of times to John and Diane. They seemed to think that this was the better route. I just thought in the Derby, he’d get a wonderful setup, tons of pace in there. I thought it would be over a racetrack that he would really like. . . . I would have liked to have run the horse in the Kentucky Derby. John made some valid points. As I had said to him earlier, we probably would have done the same thing two weeks earlier, but I’m glad we got it done today.” McCarthy, a consummate horseman, and Fradkin, whose decisions are based on handicapping, have been getting it done this winter and spring with Rombauer. So far, the calls have been the right ones: scratching from the Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita, which drew an extremely salty field, to instead make Rombauer’s season debut in the El Camino, and then awaiting the Preakness. “I’m effectively the racing manager for a two-horse stable, and I think where you enter the horse is totally a handicapping angle,” Fradkin said. “I think there’s a lot of handicappers out there that would make really good racing managers.” The next decisions the Fradkins will have to make involve handicapping the sales marketplaces and the potential for the offspring out of Rombauer’s dam, Cashmere, who is the penultimate foal produced by Ultrafleet. They plan to race Republique, a 2-year-old Strong Mandate filly out of Cashmere, and to retain her as a broodmare. Cashmere, who is boarded at Woodstock Farm in Kentucky, also has a yearling Cairo Prince filly named Alexander Helios. He has some imperfections that might make him a longshot in a highly selective yearling marketplace, and John Fradkin said he could also be campaigned as a homebred. Cashmere is in foal to Twirling Candy, carrying a full sibling to her Preakness winner whose value could rise considerably. “We still think of ourselves as commercial breeders,” Fradkin said. “That foal will be for sale.”