By Tim Wilkin
Trainer Dale Romans, 57, has been as much a constant at Saratoga Race Course as hand melons and chicken from Hattie's. This is the 32nd straight year that Romans has spent his summer at the Spa. He sat down with Tim Wilkin to talk about life, his disappearing waistline and his questionable choice of an actor to play him in the Dale Romans story.
TDN: You look a lot different this year. How much weight have you lost?
Dale Romans: It has taken a couple of years, but I've lost 180 pounds.
TDN: What was your maximum?
DR: It was 385. Now, I'm 205. I'll tell you when it started. I haven't told anyone this story. I got COVID and I was in the hospital in Miami in 2020. They came back with about five sheets of paper with everything that was wrong with me. A light went off. I knew I had to do something. I had a lot of friends that had gastric sleeve surgery and they were pushing me to do it. I went ahead and did it. Best thing I ever did. I feel like I'm aging in reverse.
TDN: You're Benjamin Button.
DR: Yup. I even started playing golf again. I wasn't able to play for 10 years.
TDN: Too heavy.
DR: That's right. Couldn't swing a club. Now, I'm playing every day. One day I played 45 holes.
TDN: Walking?
DR: (laughs). No, I won't ever get to that. I started getting healthier and the next move was to quit drinking. Quit acting like a fool all the time. In September, I went into a rehab for 12 days and have not had a drink since Sept. 25. I am the healthiest now since I was 20 years old.
TDN: If you could train one horse from history and it can't be Secretariat, who is it?
DR: Seattle Slew. I was nine years old when I went to my first Kentucky Derby and it was Seattle Slew in 1977 and I fell in love with him. When he got sick, I called the farm and wanted to go see him before he died. I went up to see him, they brought him out for me, I went to pet him, and the son of a gun bit me. Seattle Slew bit me. One of my claims to fame. He didn't like me as much as I liked him.
TDN: Correct me if I am wrong, but I am going to say your most satisfying win ever was Keen Ice beating Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the 2015 Travers.
DR: That is the most historic win. Miss Mindy on Feb. 15, 1988 was as excited as I have ever been. Maiden, $3,500 at Turfway Park. It was my first winner.
TDN: If there was a movie made on your life and you could pick the actor to play you, who are you picking?
DR: It used to be John Goodman. Now, it would be George Clooney.
TDN: Really.
DR: Why not? It's my movie.
TDN: If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?
DR: Good question. Bill Clinton. JFK. And Ben Jones, the great horse trainer.
TDN: Favorite TV show.
DR: “Gunsmoke.” I watch it every night, Multiple episodes. I like Marshall Dillon but, for my favorite, I go back and forth between Festus and Chester. I like 'em both.
TDN: Favorite horse movie?
DR: “Let It Ride.” No doubt. Anyone who doesn't like that movie doesn't like horse racing. I liked “Seabiscuit.” I liked the stunt rider in “Dreamer” (that was his life partner Tammy Fox, who filled in for Dakota Fanning).
TDN: Family is very important to you.
DR: Yes. My son (Jake) is an agent in Kentucky and handles all my business and our daughter (Bailey) is in Washington and is a yoga instructor and works on Capitol Hill. We are all very close.
TDN: If you were not a horse trainer, what would you be doing?
DR: Coaching football. I played in high school and had a chance to play Division I, but I decided to go to Beulah Park instead. I played center in football, I hit pretty hard. Wore No. 52.
TDN: So, you are a football fan. What is your favorite NFL team?
DR: The team I bet on.
TDN: If you have a day to yourself, what are you doing?
DR: Playing golf and going to a fine restaurant.
TDN: If you could sit an office for an hour and pick the brain of any horseman from history who is it?
DR: Woody Stephens. I worked for him for a few months when I was 19 and to me, he was just a fascinating person. And what he did in the game was just amazing. Five Belmonts in a row. Allen Jerkens was my man. We had plenty of dinners together and I don't think anyone could top Allen. But someone I did not get to know would be Woody. Always was intrigued by him.
TDN: Is Tammy Fox the toughest person you know?
DR: She is pretty strong for 4-foot-6. I don't mess with her. We get along pretty good. She doesn't mess with me either. She knows how to handle a loose horse.
TDN: You a loose horse?
DR: I was. I have gotten a lot better (laughs).
TDN: What is the best thing about Saratoga?
DR: The energy here. How much people love racing. Everybody is here from a billionaire to a pauper, and they are all doing the same thing. You can be hanging out on the backside betting $2 or sitting on the front side betting $10,000. And everybody is equal.
TDN: Do you set goals when you come to Saratoga?
DR: I used to set goals coming up here, but I quit doing it because they all got stepped on. Just to win a few races, pay the way. I always say Saratoga is like a box store in Manhattan. You are never going to make money. It's expensive here. But you have to have a presence if you want to be at the top of the game.
TDN: You do this radio show every week with somebody that I know. How much you like doing it?
DR: I enjoy it. I love every week when you and I record it with Mike Penna (“I Ask, They Answer” on Horse Racing Radio Network). People listen to it. I have a face for radio, as you do.
TDN: Hey, hey hey.
DR: (laughs) That's where we both belong.
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