by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — This trotter is on the verge of capturing the Ohio Triple Crown and his connections are always on red alert when it comes to his behavior. They just don’t know what Rompaway Galaxy is going to do.

“This one is a card,” said Krista Harmon, the gelding’s conditioner. “I trained him at Delaware and he never pulls. The first time around he was just fine and lollygagging around, but the second time he saw that big white tent. That was it and he took off on me. I didn’t have the handgrips set for it or anything and I didn’t tell anyone about it. I just thought to myself, ‘So you are going to embarrass me at Delaware.’ Sure enough people saw him anyway.

“There’s not a bit of meanness in him. He’s just a really good feeling horse. He bucks and plays out on the track, but when he starts racing it’s like a light switch turns on.”

Brad Conrad photo

Rompaway Galaxy has won 13 times in 17 career starts, with earnings of $302,602.

The son of Rompaway Wally and the Mr Vic mare Rompaway Wynona was an Ohio champion last year as a 2-year-old and earned $161,550 from eight pari-mutuel trips. His record was 8-7-1-0 with a mark of 1:57.4f. This season, Rompaway Galaxy is 9-6-1-1 and has banked $141,052 while lowering his swiftest time to 1:55.3f. He is a homebred that is owned by Thomas Smith’s Rompaway Farms of Battle Creek, Mich.

The gelding will capture the Ohio Triple Crown if he is victorious in the $200,000 Ohio Sire Stakes championship on Saturday (Sept. 27) at Scioto Downs, as he already triumphed in the Ohio State Fair stakes and the Ohio Breeders Championship. Rompaway Galaxy will commence his mile from post position eight with regular reinsman Mike Micallef in the bike in race four. He is the morning line favorite at 4-5 and leads all others in his division with 179 points, which is 38 more than his closest competitor, Can’tcutthatchip.

Rompaway Galaxy has collected $302,602 in his young career, but Harmon, who owns his sire, was not sure he would ever become a racehorse.

“When we were training him down and even into March of last year we didn’t know if he was going to make it to the track,” she said. “He would not pay attention at all. He was always paying attention to the infield or what was happening on the track. He was not the best mannered colt and that’s why he wasn’t supplemented to some races. After the won the sire stakes final last year he was done.”

Although the gelding can be quite a handful, Harmon admits he is well worth the time and effort they spend on him.

“He just feels so good all the time,” she said. “The mare he is out of and her family were all kind of head cases, but (Rompaway) Wally (his sire) had such a terrific temperament. He has only bred 12 or 13 mares each year, but this year he bred 30. I think Galaxy has given him a chance to get bred to some nicer mares and with horses like Galaxy, you tolerate their antics because they really do put out.

“Especially since it really is not because he is mean, but because he’s just a good-feeling horse. His head is always out of the stall and he’s fun to be around in the barn.”

After his engagement on Saturday evening, Rompaway Galaxy still has racing before him in 2014.

“He will have four more stakes this year,” Harmon said. “He has the American-National, Galt and Circle City. We did not stake him very much because he was very small early on.

“He hasn’t had much to test him and he lost the last leg of the Ohio Sire Stakes (a second place finish on Sept. 6 at Scioto Downs) because (trainer Ron) Burke’s horse (Lady’s Dude) is a nice horse. Galaxy was coming at the end when he got out but he just had too much to do.

“This horse really is the whole package. You don’t want a horse with no personality and when they are good they know it. I am very proud of him and what he has accomplished, both on the racetrack in addition to the attention he might have drawn to his sire.

“Wally didn’t race on the East Coast, but he earned his money the hard way and was bred to be any kind of horse. He’s a Conway Hall and his dam is a half-sister to the dam of Windsong’s Legacy. Galaxy shows that Wally deserves a chance as a stud.”