Berger Shepherds Duo Into the Belmont Fold

What are the chances? Well, actually, it's easy enough to do the math. There were 21,181 Thoroughbred foals in the North American crop of 2018. Of these, Woodstock Farm took in its usual dozen or so colts. And, of these, two will line up next Saturday among the favorites for the final leg of the Triple Crown.

“I'm sure it's happened before,” says the farm's owner Ben Berger. “At Gainesway and Claiborne, Taylor Made and Lane's End, Darby Dan, all these farms. I'm sure they've had some really good horses come out of the same field. Stone Farm is supposed to have a magic field. But we probably have between 10 to 15 colts a year, and for two of them to end up in this race, one having placed in the [GI Kentucky] Derby and the other won the [GI] Preakness [S.], for a farm of our size it's awfully satisfying.”

None of us, even the most sensitive and devoted of their custodians, can get into the heads of these animals sufficiently to know whether some frisson of recognition might be renewed when Hot Rod Charlie (Oxbow) and Rombauer (Twirling Candy) stroll into the parade ring before the GI Belmont S. All we can do is marvel that the whole crop, conceived and foaled and raised for no greater purpose, should include among the elite sieved into the Classics these two former paddock buddies from a small Bluegrass nursery.

Rombauer was actually foaled and weaned at Machmer Hall but transferred to Woodstock, a 190-acre farm on the Old Frankfort Pike, by breeders John and Diane Fradkin after that operation went private; while Hot Rod Charlie was sent here after being astutely picked out by Bob and Sean Feld as a $17,000 short yearling.

Aside from coinciding in their trackwork over the coming mornings, the Belmont won't be actually the first time the two colts have met since Hot Rod Charlie went back down the road to Fasig-Tipton following an eight-month sojourn with Berger. Both lined up for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile a year later, finishing third and fifth respectively, but they have performed still better in the Classics. Hot Rod Charlie ran third in the Kentucky Derby; while Rombauer, having sat out that race, pounced as a fresh horse to win the Preakness. It now feels as though a couple of star pupils from the same provincial high school have ended up as opposing attorneys at the Supreme Court.

“They would have been in the same field, from February on,” Berger recalls. “We buddied them up because one was going to the racetrack and the other was going to October and didn't need to start at the same time as the September horses. So they'd have gone together from a large, 15- or 20-acre field down to a couple acre paddock.”

Hot Rod Charlie, of course, had soon been redeemed from virtual anonymity at the Fasig-Tipton February Sale by the blossoming of his half-brother Mitole (Eskendereya) into champion sprinter. As such, he was still very well bought at the Fasig-Tipton October Sale by Dennis O'Neill for $110,000. In the meantime, he had already shown a tendency to draw attention to himself.

“He was one of those that want to do things at his speed, as opposed to what we wanted him to do,” Berger recalls. “He was a nice, good-bodied horse, always very forward. But he was a high energy kind of colt, and wanted to do things his way. We could hardly ever get him just to let down and walk. He constantly wanted to jog on the shank. He wanted to be first in, and first out, and if he wasn't he got a little bit excitable. In sales prep it all came together a bit, we were taking more effort out of him every day, and he settled and showed himself nicely.”

Rombauer, in contrast, was a model pupil who obligingly followed a different program before heading down to Eddie Woods in Ocala.

“He was a more laidback horse,” Berger recalls. “Very straightforward, very easy to deal with. Maybe because he was that way, that's why they got along like they did. When Hot Rod Charlie went into prep, Rombauer kind of stayed with him. They stayed paddocked next to each other, once we separated them, and he was on the same routine.”

When you consider that Woodstock did something pretty similar at Keeneland's first Breeders' Cup, then they must be doing something right. In 2016, they could claim a share of the credit for both first and third in the GI Juvenile Fillies' Turf: winner Catch a Glimpse (City Zip) was bred by Branch Equine, then operated by Berger's late father Robert; while the third Nemoralia (More Than Ready) had been pinhooked by Berger with David Egan.

For good measure, that crop also included Suddenbreakingnews (Mineshaft), bred by Branch Equine and fifth in the Derby after winning the GIII Southwest S. He was duly fancied for the Belmont, but disappointed, so Berger knows not to get ahead of himself this time round. But then that's something that becomes second nature when you deal with young Thoroughbreds, whose only reliability is their capacity to surprise.

“There's some that you think will do well that go out and don't do a thing, and others you think are just nice horses, they go and surprise you and are really good horses,” Berger says. “Suddenbreakingnews was a nice, straightforward horse, but I never thought he would end up in a photo for third in the Derby. Catch a Glimpse was a nice filly, but we let her go for $75,000 because that's what we thought she was worth. But, while I can't look at a horse that I've raised and say, 'This is going to be a Grade I horse,' I think you can say, 'This horse has got a chance.' A better chance than others. But so many things after they leave us have to happen right.”

It's precisely because you can't ever be certain that you must give them all the same opportunity: if you believe in your regime, your system, then they will have a platform whatever their potential. For Berger, less is more: the less he interferes, the more Nature can draw on her own resources. And the relatively intimate scale of Woodstock enables him to back off without ever losing sight of the nuances.

“I think I tend to be a little bit less intensive, in terms of micromanaging their day,” he explains. “I bring them in, feed them, exercise them, groom them, turn them back out, and just try not to get in their way too much. I think horses are better in their natural element. I don't like to overthink it, don't want to reinvent the wheel. Keep them outside as long as you can. Take care of issues as they come up, and then get them back out there. Just let them be horses as much as possible, and become the best they can be. I can't make a horse be what it's not.”

Obviously, sales preparation entails a little more discipline, with dates pretty well carved in stone, but Berger retains due flexibility for the likes of Hot Rod Charlie.

“He couldn't just do the same thing every day, like some of them,” he explains. “We couldn't lunge him or put him on the walker every day. We had to take our time: exercise him harder for periods, and then when he started getting a little over the top, back up and hand walk for a while. I think sometimes we're able to do things like that, because we have less numbers. It's always easier if you try to work with a horse's personality and quirks rather than against them.”

Berger lost his father a couple of years ago but he had been present when Catch a Glimpse won at the Breeders' Cup.

“He bought her mother Halo River [Irish River {Fr}] as a weanling and raced her,” Berger says. “She won the Appalachian before it was graded, but probably the best race he ever won. And he was there the day Catch a Glimpse broke her dam's track record in the same race. That was the year my mother passed, and I think Catch a Glimpse helped a lot, she was a special horse to all of us.”

Berger Sr. had a long and colorful career before entering the Turf. He had grown up on a coal camp in Harlan County, Ky., but went away to Duke University where he played linebacker and defensive guard for the Blue Devils under Wallace Wade. He served in the Air Force as first lieutenant before returning to Duke for law school, and practiced for 20 years before buying an explosives plant to supply mining clients.

“All along, he loved animals,” Berger recalls. “He bred dogs at one point, imported a field trial dog from England or Ireland, and with horses he started with Morgans. He had some success showing, but soon found out that Morgan horse babies don't bring near as much as Thoroughbred babies do, so he kind of transitioned that way.”

Berger Sr. cut his teeth with syndicates, with Centennial Farms and Dogwood, and struck gold with a stake in 1990 Preakness winner Summer Squall (Storm Bird) before initiating his own program.

“My father always had fairly strong ideas, and liked to be able to test them without having to answer to someone else,” Berger says. “If it succeeded, great. If it didn't, then he would learn from it and do it different next time. So, he started buying mares and breeding some on his own. And then after about 15 or 20 years [in 1997] my mother bought the farm and he brought his horses there.”

Berger himself graduated from Amherst College, Ma., and spent a year in Manhattan as a paralegal. But his heart wasn't in city life and when he went up to Saratoga to see his father sell a Storm Bird filly, her disappointing price didn't prevent a game-changing weekend. Berger was introduced to the Taylor brothers, who were looking after some of his father's mares at the time (along with Mill Ridge and Darby Dan) and were suitably polite when he mentioned the idea of getting some experience on their farm someday. A couple of weeks later he showed up at the farm office.

One of the Taylor boys got onto the phone to Berger Sr.

“Your son's here. We kind of told him he could have a job. He wants to learn about horses. What do you think?”

“Well,” came the reply. “If he wants to learn about horses, put him where you think he's going to learn about horses.”

“So, they stuck me in a barn with 26 foaling mares,” recalls Berger. “He didn't ask them to coddle me or to treat me any differently than anybody else. I think he would probably have been happier if I'd gone to law school. But after a couple of years, I just found that I liked what I was doing, and thought I could make a living doing it.”

Even when the family acquired a farm, and Berger was given the chance to transfer the skills he had honed with stints in South Carolina and New York, besides one at Mill Ridge, he was left no doubt that he would have to earn his stripes. The manager Tom Wright was retained, and became something of a mentor. Berger spent a winter as nightwatchman, he mucked out, he did the accounts. On Wright's death, however, he was given his chance.

“Of course I made mistakes along the way, but we kept at it together,” Berger says. “I think in the end my father was fine about me working with the horses, it just wasn't something he had expected or pointed me towards. If anything, he may have tried to steer me away–but I was a little too hard-headed to listen.”

And thank goodness for that. Berger is meeting the exemplary standards to which he was raised and, while determinedly modest, can surely take pride in the niche he has created for Woodstock.

“My father liked to do a lot of different things, and liked to make his own way,” he says. “In almost everything he set out to do, he typically got pretty doggone close to what he wanted. He never tried to be real hands-on, raising foals, and didn't want to race an awful lot. What he really enjoyed was studying pedigrees and putting matings together. And whether they sold well or not, he enjoyed seeing those horses run well for other people as much as anything.

“The horses gave him great pleasure. And so did his children and grandchildren. He was a huge supporter of Duke football, and basketball, which didn't necessarily make him the most liked person in Lexington! He was a lucky guy. He lived his life the way he chose, and made it work out for himself. We were lucky to have him as a father, and as a boss. Wasn't always the easiest guy to work for, but I learned a lot of things from him that I probably don't want to admit now.”

Now Berger is likewise improvising his own path. He has just four mares of his own, and pinhooks four or five weanlings.

“We're a small farm, and I've been lucky to have good people here the whole time,” he says. “These two horses, I think we just tried to stay out of their way, and let them became what they could. Machmer Hall foaled and raised Rombauer, and we've had luck before with them. We all know each other, all work with each other. Every year there's a lot of really nice horses that go through sales, a lot that don't go through sales. But out of a 20,000-plus foal crop, for two to be in the same field and end up in the same Classic race two years down the line, well, we'd sure like to see them run one-two. This is a big business, but it's a small world.”

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McCarthy: Rombauer ‘Justified What I Thought Of Him All Along’

After a few hours of sleep, trainer Michael McCarthy was back at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., on Sunday morning, quietly talking about Rombauer's emphatic victory in the 146th Preakness Stakes (G1) Saturday and looking ahead to the Belmont Stakes (G1).

Bred and raced by John and Diane Fradkin of Santa Ana, Calif., the son of Twirling Candy rallied from off the pace in the second turn and passed tiring pacesetters Medina Spirit and Midnight Bourbon to win the Preakness by 3 ½ lengths. His time of 1:53.62 was the eighth-fastest since the race distance was changed to 1 3/16 miles in 1925.

While McCarthy, 50, acquired plenty of experience in Triple Crown races during his long tour as an assistant to Hall of Fame-elect trainer Todd Pletcher, Rombauer was his first starter in the series since he opened his own stable in 2014. The well-respected, low-key, California-based horseman started receiving congratulatory calls and texts as soon as the race was over.

“It's been great,” McCarthy said. “It's nice to see this all kind of come together. The horse justified what I thought of him all along.”

The Fradkins and McCarthy have decided to ship Rombauer to Belmont Park Monday and are seriously considering running him in the 1 ½-mile Belmont June 5.

“We will go ahead and go to Belmont,” McCarthy said. “We will get there and see how he is and where he is at and go from there.”

Not counting 2020 when the Preakness was the last of the Triple Crown races to be run because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rombauer is the seventh horse since 1980 to win the Preakness after skipping the Kentucky Derby (G1). Three of the six – Codex (1980), Aloma's Ruler (1982), and Deputed Testamony (1983) – failed to win the Belmont Stakes. The other three – Red Bullet (2000), Rachel Alexandra (2009), Cloud Computing (2017) – did not enter the third leg of the Triple Crown. A total of 18 horses have completed the Preakness-Belmont double. Since the current Triple Crown schedule was adapted in 1932, no horse that skipped the Derby has won the Preakness and Belmont.

McCarthy was pushing to run Rombauer in the Kentucky Derby after he picked up enough qualifying points with his third-place finish in the Blue Grass (G2) April 3. However, the owners opted to bypass the Derby and wait for the Preakness. The colt, which the Fradkins had been unable to sell as planned as a 2-year-old, earned a fees-paid entry in the Preakness by winning the El Camino Real Derby, a 'Win & In' race Feb. 13 at Golden Gate Fields.

As he held Rombauer's lead shank Sunday morning outside the Preakness Stakes Barn, McCarthy did not second-guess the decision to skip the Derby but pointed to his consistency.

“It's right there on paper, the horse shows up every time,” McCarthy said. “The way the race shaped up at Churchill Downs, I'm not sure if he would've made any noise or not, but I think he would have been running late.”

The off-the-pace style that has worked on turf and Golden Gate's synthetic surface carried Rombauer to his first career dirt victory in the Preakness. Jockey Flavien Plat, riding the horse for the first time, sat sixth in the field of 10 about five lengths off the pace after a half-mile in 46.93 seconds. Medina Spirit, the Kentucky Derby winner, had a half-length lead at the time, but could not shake pressing Midnight Bourbon.

The race was developing as McCarthy had hoped and he watched from the stands as Prat and Rombauer accelerated entering the second turn and moved into contention.

“I thought it was fairly formful,” McCarthy said. “If anything, I thought we were maybe just a touch closer than what I expected. It always looked like Flavien was traveling well. He was never in a bad spot. It's only a 10-horse field but never at any time was the horse in a bad spot, finding any difficulty. The horse seemed to be responding to whatever Flavien was asking of him.”

In the stretch, Midnight Bourbon finally got his head in front of Medina Spirit. Rombauer had arrived, engaged Midnight Bourbon while racing about four wide and took command approaching the sixteenth pole.

“We got a good setup yesterday,” McCarthy said. “The way the track was playing, I was a bit concerned earlier in the day. The speed was good. The inside was good. I could see horses coming off the pace a little bit later on in the afternoon yesterday. So that sort of gave us a little sort of hope that the track was on the fairer side or getting to the fairer side.”

McCarthy and Prat discussed strategy for the Preakness and were in agreement on how Prat should ride the race.

“He said, 'I don't want to take the horse out of his style,'” McCarthy said.  “I said, 'that's the best thing to do. We've gotten here. We've come this far. It's the right move. Go ahead and do what you're comfortable with.'”

In the seven-plus seasons since he went home to the West Coast and launched a one-horse stable, McCarthy has emerged as one of the top trainers on the Southern California circuit. Among his big wins came with City of Light, who captured the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) in 2018 and the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) in 2019.

Though Rombauer was 11-1 in the betting Saturday, McCarthy said he was confident going into the Preakness.

“It's one of those things where you like to say it would be pleasant surprise, but I thought the horse would run well,” he said. “I kept telling everyone that he would definitely run a mile and three-sixteenths. I just hoped he would do it as fast as everyone else. He did that and a little more.”

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‘Uncomplicated’ Preakness Stakes Winner Rombauer Got His Start At Machmer Hall

Neither Carrie Brogden, nor her Machmer Hall Farm appeared in the track program among the connections for Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer, but her phone messages exploded after the race as if it was.

The Twirling Candy colt was born and raised at Brogden's Paris, Ky. farm for owner/breeders John and Diane Fradkin, who boarded their modest broodmare band at Machmer Hall until the farm privatized in late 2018.

Rombauer caught the betting public somewhat flat-footed as a winner at odds of 11.80-to-one, but the colt's classic performance also took Brogden by surprise.

“We never expected what happened,” she said. “We just couldn't believe it. I am so happy for the Fradkins. They stuck through it all. They had a great mare with a great family, and they believed in her, and that's what owner-breeders need to do.”

Rombauer's dam, the fellow Fradkin homebred Cashmere, was hardly a mare slated for classic success on the surface. Her sire, Cowboy Cal, was exported to Korea with little fanfare as a sire of runners or broodmares, and she never made a start before entering production.

Looking at the bottom of her page, though, revealed why Cashmere was kept to extend her bloodline. She is a half-sister to a pair of Grade 3 winners in California Flag and Cambiocorsa, the latter of which is a multiple graded stakes producer and the second dam of the great Roaring Lion.

The part of Cashmere that kept her in the broodmare band – the strong record of production in the female family – is what ultimately rewarded the Fradkins. Her first two foals were stakes-placed runners, and when it came time to plan the mare's fourth mating, Brogden said John Fradkin paid attention to his surroundings.

“John picked out Twirling Candy himself to breed to Cashmere, and what I think he did was just watch all the 2-year-old sales, and picked what he felt was the best value-for-money sire, and he picked Twirling Candy,” Brogden said. “I don't want to take any credit for this mating. He already knew we were huge fans of Twirling Candy, and have been featured in all the ads for the stallion. We've had unbelievable success with Twirling Candy. We bred (Grade 1 winner) Gift Box, and we had an $825,000 2-year-old by him.”

Rombauer came about on April 17, 2018, and he spent the first eight months of his life at Machmer Hall.

“He was uncomplicated,” Brogden said. “He had no conformational issues, he had no birthing issues, he had no sickness issues. He was just what a lot of people say about top graded stakes winners; they were uncomplicated and they didn't get in their own way.”

A few months after Rombauer was weaned, the Fradkins moved their breeding interests to Ben Berger's Woodstock Farm in Lexington, Ky., after the Brogden family decided to privatize their operation and raise only their own foals.

Though they are no longer directly in business together, Brogden maintains a good relationship with the Fradkins, and followed the career of their colt closely.

As a juvenile, Rombauer picked up his first black type with a runner-up effort in the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes, before running fifth in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He clinched an all-expenses-paid trip and more Kentucky Derby qualifying points with a win in the El Camino Real Derby, then ran third in the G2 Blue Grass Stakes.

Brogden, rarely one to mince words, let John know how disappointed she was when he decided to skip the Derby, even though he had enough points to make the field, but she couldn't argue with the reasoning.

“I felt like he belonged in the race,” Brogden said. “John, in all fairness, said he wanted to do the right thing by the horse, and he didn't think he was ready for the Derby, and wanted to target the Preakness.”

As it often proves out, doing right by the horse ended up being the right call.

Cashmere continues to reside at Woodstock Farm, where she followed Rombauer with a Strong Mandate filly named Republique who is an unraced 2-year-old of 2021, and a yearling Cairo Prince colt named Alexander Helios. The mare was bred to Kantharos for the 2021 foaling season.

For a horsewoman with so many banners in the rafters tied to Twirling Candy, Brogden said Rombauer's Preakness win was just the start of something big with the resident of Lane's End, who was also represented on this year's Triple Crown trail by G1 Santa Anita Derby third-place finisher Dream Shake.

“Twirling Candy – watch out,” she said. “He is going to blow the doors off. When these next few crops hit, watch out. They may be 'plain Janes,' but all of them are super walkers, and they are going to blow the doors off as they get older.”

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Rombauer Upsets 146th Preakness With Powerful Stretch Run

Trainer Michael McCarthy made his first start in a Triple Crown race a big one at Pimlico race course in Baltimore, Md., winning Saturday's 146th running of the Grade 1, $1-million Preakness Stakes with John and Diane Fradkin's homebred Twirling Candy colt Rombauer. Ridden to perfection by Flavien Prat, Rombauer came from off the pace to win the Triple Crown's middle jewel, racing past dueling leaders Midnight Bourbon and Medina Spirit in midstretch to win by 3 1/2 lengths.

Midnight Bourbon held second, with 2-1 favorite Medina Spirit third, Keepmeinmind fourth and Crowded trade fifth in the field of 10 3-year-olds. Unbridled Honor, France Go de Ina, Risk Taking, Concert Tour and Ram completed the order of finish.

Rombauer paid $25.60 for the win, his third from seven  career starts. He ran the 1 3/16 miles in 1:53.62.

“I'm so proud of this horse, everybody involved,” said McCarthy, fighting back tears as he spoke to NBC's Kenny Rice. “It means a lot to be here and participate on a day like this. I'm happy for the Fradkins. It just goes to show you that small players in this game can be successful, as well. Hats off to everybody. I wish my family could be here. Fantastic.”

Rombauer was produced from the Cowboy Cal mare, Cashmere

With just two mares, the Fradkins typically sell their foals but they opted to race Rombauer after COVID-19 altered the 2020 auction schedule of 2-year-olds in training. On the advice of consignor Eddie Woods, they put him in training instead, sending him to McCarthy in California, and had hoped to sell him privately once he raced.

Rombauer won his debut on July 25, coming from off the pace to win a one-mile maiden race on turf by a half length. John Fradkin was hoping that would generate interest in the horse, but when the Beyer Speed Figure came up  a relatively low 55, there were no calls.

After Rombauer's Preakness victory, Fradkin said he later would learn that Del Mar's timing system was not working properly and the race was probably run much faster than the official time. If the real time was published, Fradkin said, the horse probably would have been sold.

 

 

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