Romans shoots for Royal Delta upset with Gamblers Rose
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The main story line in the Royal Delta Stakes at Gulfstream Park will focus on whether Sandiva can make the same remarkable turf-to-dirt transition pulled off recently by her Al Shaqab Racing stablemate Mshawish.
There are opposing trainers who will do their best to foil that. One is Dale Romans, who will send out Gamblers Rose as one of the longer shots in the Grade 2, $200,000 Royal Delta, which will be run Saturday as the only graded race here between now and Fountain of Youth Day on Feb. 27.
“She’s training good, and we’re hoping to get some graded black type for her,” said Romans, who has the distinction of having been the last trainer to defeat Wise Dan (with Silver Max) and American Pharoah (with Keen Ice). “Plus, you never really know about horses trying something for the first time.”
His reference is to Sandiva, the likely favorite in a prospective small field for the 1 1/16-mile Royal Delta. The 5-year-old Sandiva has never raced on anything but turf in 18 career starts. Mshawish also had never raced on dirt until last fall and now has gone 2 for 3 on it, culminating with a powerful victory here last Saturday in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap. Both horses are trained for Al Shaqab by Todd Pletcher.
Besides Sandiva and Gamblers Rose, other fillies and mares definite for the Royal Delta include Best Behavior and Penwith, both two-length winners of their respective last starts at Gulfstream. Best Behavior, trained by Marty Wolfson, won the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl on Dec. 26, while Penwith, trained by Kiaran McLaughlin, returned from a layoff of nearly a year with a Jan. 21 allowance triumph.
Entries were to be drawn late Wednesday.
Keen Ice headed to Dubai
Romans said all systems are go for Keen Ice and his trip to Dubai after the 4-year-old colt finished sixth behind Mshawish as the 2-1 Donn favorite.
“I actually thought it was a sneaky-good race,” said Romans. “We were carrying high weight, it was his first race in 10 weeks, this track favors speed, and we’ve always said he needs more ground. We’re in good shape.”
Keen Ice probably will race once at Meydan prior to his main goal, the $10 million Dubai World Cup at about 1 1/4 miles on March 26.