Preakness winner Rombauer retired - but timing presents problems for stud career

John and Diane Fradkin's homebred Preakness Stakes winner Rombauer has been retired from racing.

Rombauer's last race came in the Belmont Stakes on June 5, in which he finished third. The now four-year-old Twirling Candy colt had some filling in his ankles following the last race of the Triple Crown.

He went back into training with Michael McCarthy in mid-October and appeared to be in good order before returning to the work tab in late November. After five workouts he began to carry pressure in his ankles again and on December 31, the first day Santa Anita opened its main track after three days of rain, Rombauer took a bad step while galloping. His connections felt it was best to retire the colt.

John Fradkin said he hopes to see Rombauer stand at a major stud farm in Kentucky, but noted the difficulty of the timing of his colt's retirement with breeding season soon approaching

"Getting the right mares in the first crop is so important, and it's so late I've even thought that maybe he needs to go to Australia for his first season and then come back and do it right for next year. That's not out of the question," Fradkin said, noting the idea of breeding down under would need to be explored.

Rombauer made his debut in July of his two-year-old season at Del Mar, going a mile on the turf. He rallied from seventh to score a half-length victory after running a speedy final quarter.

"His very first race, that one still stands out as one of his best to me. He came home in :22.93," Fradkin said. "It's rare for an older horses to come home in :22 and change — it's not that rare, but it's reasonably rare — and for a first-time starter two-year-old in July to do that is pretty amazing. That's sort of the one thing that I noticed, that I thought he was special."

Also at age two, Rombauer rallied to finish second, beaten less than a length, in the American Pharoah Stakes on Santa Anita's main track. In his three-year-old debut, he added a victory on a synthetic track by taking the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields.

His biggest victory came last May in the Preakness at Pimlico. Sent off at 11-1 with Flavien Prat up, Rombauer came from mid-pack and drew off to win by three and a half lengths. In that victory he defeated Graded stakes winner and multiple Grade 1-placed Midnight Bourbon and the 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit.

"That was obviously a highest of highs because I didn't expect to win that day. It was just an amazing journey," Fradkin said.

Rombauer retires with earnings of $1,040,500 and a 3-1-2 record in eight starts. His owners had hoped for a four-year-old campaign that included the Dubai World Cup in March and the Pacific Classic in August.

The Fradkins bred Rombauer in Kentucky out of the Cowboy Cal mare Cashmere, who has also produced the black-type-placed winner Cono and $220,405 earner Treasure Trove among four winners from four starters.

Cashmere, out of the Afleet mare Ultrafleet, is a half-sister to Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint hero California Flag as well as Graded stakes winner Cambiocorsa . The latter of those siblings produced four black-type winners, including Grade 2 stakes winners Moulin De Mougin and Schiaparelli.

Cambiocorsa is also granddam of European champion Roaring Lion through her Grade 1-placed daughter Vionnet.

Rombauer is by a son of Candy Ride, the sire of 2021 leading freshman stallion Gun Runner. Both Rombauer and Gun Runner are out of Storm Cat line mares. Cashmere is a granddaughter of Giant's Causeway, while Gun Runner is out of a Giant's Causeway mare.

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