‘Dream come true’ for Romero the Jockey
At the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, at the remodelled Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion here on Friday in Saratoga Springs, the crowd gave a huge round of applause to the well deserving jockey, Randy Romero. He was the last inductee of the event and has a very pulsating athletic profile, with commendable successes and disappointing defeats.
Romero’s introduction was given by Ken Dunn, who is a seasoned general manager of Calder Race Course. Dunn called Romero “the Charlie Hustle” of horse racing. Romero attributed his success to his wife, family, friends, trainers, agents and owners and took the opportunity to thank them for making his career a success with 4,294 wins. Over the duration of which he was subjected to 20 major operations for broken bones and other injuries. The jockey undergoes kidney dialysis treatments and was recently medicated for chronic liver and kidney disease.
Romero has been nominated at the ballot for the past seven years and he was finally inducted this year. He is most popularly known for his 2 races on the unfortunate Go for Wand and the invincible Personal Ensign horse races.
Romero was seen over whelmed at the occasion and said that he finally made it, and it was a dream come true for him.
Those who were inducted along with Romero included Azeri; the 2002 Horse of the Year, Point Given; the colt who won the 2001 Horse of the Year, and Best Pal; Best Pal is the famous stakes winning horse who is the California-bred earner so far. Besides these race horses,the 1871 Belmont and Travers Stakes Grade I winner, Harry Bassett, the very devoted trainer of Native Diver, Michael Buster Millerick and the winner rider of 3,546 races over a period of 30 years, Don Pierce, made it to the inductee’s list here on Friday.
All the inductees of the Hall of Fame were California based except Harry Bassett and Romero, which caused the induction program to heavily lean towards the left coast. Even the speaker of the ceremony, Gary Stevens, was primarily a jockey in California and like most other Californian’s, he was a part of a Hollywood movie, Seabiscuit in 2003, as a supporting actor.
An undeclared correspondent of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindall, Carroll Angelle followed Randy during the event. Carroll was sent to read out a pair of proclamations to Romero but he was seen to put the documents away after reading a few lines. In the speech that Carroll delivered he mentioned the short stories of the jockey’s life for which he was well known since 1979. His speech ended with appreciating Romero’s performance in Seabiscuit, as a co star.
Of the speeches delivered by the elected people on the ceremony, the most emotional one came from the son of the late John and Betty Mabee, Larry Mabee. They were the owners and breeders of Best Pal and absolutely adored and loved the horse. Larry said he was missing his parents, one of the most admired couples of California racing. The couple would have been more than happy and proud to see their horse get the Hall of Fame.
In the speech delivered by the associates of Point Given, regrets were expressed over the death of the owner of the horse, Prince Ahmed Salman. He said that the horse could have won the Triple Crown if not the Kentucky Derby. The horse was ridden by Stevens in the Derby in which he finished in the fifth spot, while he tremendously won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. At Fasig-Tipton, the auctioneer and consultant of Salman’s Thoroughbred Corporation, Terrence Collier, declared in his speech that Stevens was not to be blamed for the colt’s defeat in the Derby.
Azeri's award was accepted by the son of her late breeder, Michael Paulson. His speech ended with reference to a race that took place at Hollywood Park where the horse won the 2003 Milady Handicap.
Don Pierce took quite some time to compose himself when he came to collect his award. After this long pause he made a very short acceptance speech of about 90 seconds. The jockey has a huge stock of stories about his racing career. He pointed at Bob Baffert in the crowd and then said without a microphone that Bob Baffert cried when he was inducted for the Hall of Fame last year but he did not.
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