Gulfstream Park: Little Mike's new trainer, Romans remain friends

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Little Mike arrived at Gulfstream Park on Saturday to begin preparations for his 2014 campaign. But the van that brought the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner from Ocala did not stop at trainer Dale Romans’s barn, but a little farther down the road, where he was greeted by his owner and new trainer, Carlo Vaccarezza.

Vaccarezza, who also bred Little Mike, took out his trainer’s license here last summer and saddled his first two winners, the promising 3-year-olds Little Alexis and Little Michelle, at the end of February. He said his decision to train Little Mike is not an indication, as some people have inferred, that he has had a falling out with Romans.

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“I want to make the record clear I’m still good friends with Dale Romans,” said Vaccarezza. “I talk with Dale two or three times a day. He was at my restaurant for dinner a few nights ago. Actually it was Dale who pushed me to take out my trainer’s license after I sold two of my other restaurants and wound up with a lot of extra time on my hands. I took over the training of 19 other horses I had with Dale, so it made no sense not to take Little Mike too.”

Vaccarezza transferred Little Mike to Romans following his victory in the Grade 3 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes here in January 2011. Together Romans and Little Mike teamed up to win six graded stakes, including three Grade 1 races – the Breeders’ Cup Turf, Arlington Million and Woodford Reserve Turf Classic – in 2012, the year Romans was voted an Eclipse Award as the nation’s top trainer.

“I owe a lot to Dale and Dale owes a lot to Little Mike,” said Vaccarezza. “They have both helped each other’s careers. Little Mike would probably never have been Little Mike without Dale, and Dale probably would never have won an Eclipse Award without Little Mike, so it’s worked out well for everybody.”

Vaccarezza is stabled next door to Romans on the Gulfstream Park backstretch in a barn that also houses Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens.

“I’ve been blessed they put me in a barn with Allen,” said Vaccarezza. “It’s like going to Harvard without paying the tuition. He’s a wonderful person and helps and advises me every day.”

Little Mike has not started since finishing ninth, beaten just four lengths, in the Hong Kong Cup on Dec. 8 at Sha Tin. He has spent the past three months at Jimmy Crupi’s barn in Ocala, where he worked once, an easy three-eighths in 39 seconds, prior to shipping here Saturday.

“We gave him some time off and freshened him up a little bit after he returned from Hong Kong. He’s gained all his weight back, and already had one easy breeze with Crupi,” said Vaccarezza. “I’ll probably breeze him here on Monday. If all goes well I’d like to run him here, maybe in some kind of overnight stakes going a mile or a mile and one-sixteenth at the end of the meet, and then go to Churchill Downs, where our first goal is to try to win the Woodford Reserve again on Derby Day.”

◗ Two potential starters for the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap turned in their final works here on Saturday. Sr. Quisqueyano, a two-time stakes winner here during the second half of 2013, cruised a half-mile in 49.60. Several minutes earlier, Golden Ticket worked five furlongs in 1:00.92 in company with stablemates Olympic Thunder and C.J.’s Awesome.