Kentucky Derby Horse Profile: Attachment Rate
By Ed McNamara
Louisville native Dale Romans grew up in his father’s barn at Churchill Downs.
Attachment Rate – Courtesy of Churchill Downs/Coady Photography.
Winning the Derby has been a lifelong dream that hasn’t come true for an outstanding trainer, and I doubt this will be Romans’ year.
Attachment Rate, pure and simple, is a well-bred disappointment. He’s 0-for-7 on fast tracks and 0-for-2 at his base, Churchill. Most of his races were respectable, such as his latest, second to Art Collector in the Ellis Park Derby.
Speed figures are weak, and he needs a quantum leap to contend. I don’t see it happening.
Profiles will be updated with morning-line odds and post position after the field is drawn on Tuesday, Sept. 1
ATTACHMENT RATE
Odds: TBD
Post position: TBD
Jockey: Joe Talamo
Trainer: Dale Romans
Owner: Jim Bakke, Gerald Isbister
Career record: 8-1-3-1
Career earnings: $143,732
Top Equibase speed figure: 99
Kentucky Derby points: 35 (15th)
Pedigree: Hard Spun-Aristra, by Afleet Alex
Color: Chestnut
Running style: Mid-pack rallier
Notes: This will be Dale Romans’ 10th Derby and 11th starter – he had two in 2018 (Promises Fulfilled, 15th; Free Drop Billy, 16th) … His best results were a pair of thirds — Paddy O’ Prado in 2010 and Dullahan in 2012 … Joe Talamo will be riding in his third Derby, with no success previously – 17th in 2010 with Sidney’s Candy and 16th in 2015 with War Story … Talamo left the SoCal circuit for the Arkansas, Kentucky circuit in late 2019 … He’s won over 2,000 races in a career that began in 2006; his biggest win this year was aboard Serengeti Empress in the Azeri Stakes (G2) at Oaklawn Park back in March.
(US Racing’s Kentucky Derby coverage will include profiles of the horses listed as probable for the race on Saturday, Sept. 5. Each day until the post-position draw on Tuesday, Sept. 1, US Racing will publish selected profiles of the contenders.)
Ed McNamara is an award-winning journalist who has been writing about thoroughbred racing for 35 years. He has handicapped races for ESPN.com, Newsday and The Record of New Jersey. He is the author of “Cajun Racing: From the Bush Tracks to the Triple Crown” and co-author of “The Most Glorious Crown,” a chronicle of the first 12 Triple Crown champions.
