Romans satisfied with Cherry Wine

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Dale Romans said he was pleased with the performance of Cherry Wine in Saturday’s Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn. In his stakes debut, Cherry Wine finished a late-running fourth behind the winner, Cupid.

”He ran like a Kentucky Derby horse should,” said Romans. “He wound up in traffic, he took all the worst of it, and he still finished up running. I don’t know where I’m going to go back with him, whether it will be in the Wood, the Blue Grass, or go back to Arkansas, but we’ll figure something out.”

Romans is still scratching his head over the performance of Brody’s Cause on March 12 in the Tampa Bay Derby. Brody’s Cause, a Grade 1 winner at age 2 and third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, finished seventh behind Destin as the 2-1 favorite while making his 3-year-old debut at Tampa.

“I have no explanation why he ran so poorly in the first start of his career, and I have no explanation why he ran so poorly in Tampa,” said Romans. “He’s actually come back here training better since the race than before. I’m just going to draw a line through it and stay the course with him and go on to the Blue Grass, as we’d planned all along.”

Romans said he is also convinced that Keen Ice will run much better in the Dubai World Cup on Saturday than he did when finishing seventh in the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 in his final prep for the World Cup.

“I think he’ll definitely improve with the extra time he’s had over there,” said Romans. “He worked great Saturday; he just needs the right pace scenario – not having them go 26 the first quarter and 22 the final quarter like the last time.”

◗ Luis Saez escaped from a riding mishap here Saturday without any serious injuries, although he did take off all his mounts Sunday. Saez, second in the jockey standings behind Javier Castellano, will serve out a riding suspension through Thursday before returning to handle two mounts on Friday’s program.

◗ Aristides “Teddy” Hoomis, a mainstay in New England who also trained horses on the Tampa and south Florida circuits from 1991-2000, died this week following a short illness at the age of 77.