Michael Dini at Tampa Bay Downs (Ben Baugh)
By Ben Baugh
Carl Sandburg’s poem “Chicago” described the municipality as the City of Big Shoulders. Trainer Michael Dini has had to shoulder the burden of adversity at times, and this Chi-Town native has weathered the storms in a sport known for its pitfalls and adversity.
Dini became involved in horse racing in an unconventional way. He wasn’t born into the business and didn’t exhibit or compete in equestrian sport, although he did have experience with horses, having cared for several that were owned by his uncle while growing up. It was his love for the racetrack and handicapping that enabled him to cross the threshold into a way of life that has become ingrained into every fiber of his being for more than four decades. The storied Arlington Park would be the setting where Dini would begin to learn about the industry from the ground up, going to work on the backside when he was 18 years old, right out of high school.
Those early lessons laid the foundation for the conditioner, who would eventually get a horse of his own, take out his trainer’s license in 1995 at Thistledown Racetrack in North Randall, Ohio, and hang out his own shingle, making a go of it in an industry that at times can be unforgiving.
The trainer Dini had initially worked for had been an assistant to Hall of Famer Harry Trotzek, who trained the 1954 Preakness winner Hasty Road, and was credited with one of Thoroughbred racing’s great quotes that has resonated with generations of horsemen and fans alike: “Good horses overcome all sorts of things, including their trainers.”
It was also while he was based in Illinois that Dini had the chance to work as a groom for Irish Acres’s Noel Hickey, before striking out on his own.
“It was just the fun of being in it,” said Dini. “I was hoping to get lucky. There were a lot of ups and downs, that’s for sure.”
However, even though he’s an Illinois native, Dini was never one who was afraid to venture from his home bases of Arlington Park and Hawthorne Race Course, taking on all comers at tracks nationwide and in Canada.
Unearthing a Gem
The trainer’s most successful earner was a dark bay mare, racing in the silks of Ballybrit Stable LLC, who won $546,475 and was purchased for $5,000 from the consignment of Hoppel’s Horse and Cattle Company. The daughter of Hightail, out of the Dynaformer mare Southern Dynamo would go on to win four stakes races, in a career that saw Dynatail make 36 starts.
“We were just looking for a good, useful horse,” said Dini “My owner (Dr. Alan Lustig, Seminole, Fla.) watched her work and thought, for the right kind of money he would give her a try.”
The mare more than lived up to her expectations and showcased her talents as a turf route horse, claiming victories in the 1 1/16-mile Salvatore M. Debunda PTHA Stakes at Parx, winning by a neck with Chris DeCarlo up. She also captured the Susquehanna Stakes at Penn National, at the same distance, but by a larger margin of two lengths, with the more than capable Luis Saez piloting the winner.
The Grantville, Pa. track seemed to be to Dynatail’s liking as she also captured the Penn National Oaks at a mile on the turf, demonstrating her mettle with a ¾-length score again with Saez in the irons.
She was equally as brilliant on the synthetic with a 1 ¾-length victory, with Orlando Bocachica guiding the mare to victory in the OBS Championship Fillies Division
However, it was far from seamless in the mare’s earlier races as her evolution came with being patient as she matured and learned from previous mistakes eventually earning black-type as her career progressed.
“She did everything right,” said Dini. “She was a little quirky when she was young. We were sure she was going to win, and she missed the turn, but then when she straightened out, she seemed to get better.”
Dynatail may have added to her impressive resume, but like so many her career was impacted by an unexpected event that would forever change the world as we know it.
“We were actually going to race her a little longer, and then COVID set in, and it looked like because of her win record, there was nowhere where I was going to be able to run her,” said Dini. “I told the owner, instead of wasting another year as a breeder, and then 2 ½-months later, they started racing again. She would have run another year, at least. He wasn’t in a rush to breed, her, I was sitting here in May, and no one is going to know what’s going to happen the first year of COVID”
The conditioner would have pointed his charge to the Ballston Spa (G2) in Saratoga, had she not transitioned into becoming a broodmare as a result of the uncertainty caused by the virus, one that altered schedules and transformed lives.
“It’s a shame because later that year I had a horse called Bramble Queen that ran in a five-horse stake at Saratoga, and if Dynatail was training, I would have run her over that,” said Dini. “Of course, it was one of those races with no speed. Without running in it, you wouldn’t know, but the way that the race set up, I don’t think that they would’ve ever beat her in that race. And she would’ve beat a really nice horse, but we sent her to the farm because of COVID and retired her.”
All-encompassing Perspective
A horse whose legend continues to grow every time he goes postward, the venerable multiple graded stakes placed gelding Bird’s Eye View has been more than just a durable campaigner, but a familiar face that Dini has a soft spot for and looks forward to seeing in the morning when he comes to the barn.
The gray son of Mizzen Mast out of Lavish Outlook (by Smarty Jones) was purchased at the 2016 OBS March sale by Ballybrit/Alan Lustig from the consignment of Parrish Farms for $50,000, and the graded stakes placed runner has bankrolled more than $400,000 in his career and is continuing to add to that total in 2023. Third-place finishes in the With Anticipation Stakes at Saratoga (G2) and Dixiana Bourbon Stakes (G3) at Keeneland are among the outstanding efforts of a deep resume that is redolent of a racehorse who loves his job.
“He’s just an honest horse,” said Dini. “Now age is catching up with him. When he was young, he was doing everything right. He wasn’t top notch but as long as he was always on the turf, he always showed up. He won at Keeneland and Belmont, and if he doesn’t get claimed one day, he only has about a year of racing left, he’s like a stable pet, he’ll be a lead pony. We’ll race him sparingly this year. Next year or the year after, he’ll definitely be retired.”
Jersey Girl
The vagaries of life often can alter the course that we hoped to take but that doesn’t mean the journey and ending won’t be better than what we could’ve ever imagined. A bay mare by Bullet Train (GB) took an unusual route to become a multiple stakes winner. The Ballybrit homebred was more than up to the task, although it did take nine starts to break her maiden, but the trainer’s patience paid off. She won two editions of the Jersey Girl Handicap on the turf at Monmouth Park.
“Bramble Bay was going to be a good 2-year-old and then she got loose,” said Dini. “She ran into a feed storage room. I thought she broke her shoulder, but it just swelled for a while. So, we ran her only once as a 2-year-old and gave her a start as a 3-year-old and gave her a start on the turf. She really changed. Over time, she just got better and better. I believe deep down if she would have never injured that shoulder, she probably would have been a better horse, you never know. It doesn’t bother her now, but maybe it does. She just races all the time.”
Inland Empire Royalty
Bramble Bay’s half-sister, Bramble Queen, is also a multiple stakes winner. The Illinois-bred, by Silent Name out of Regal Rose (by Empire Maker), was a two-time winner of the Hawthorne Illini Princess Stakes, and scored a stirring half-length victory in the Mike Spellman Memorial Stakes at Arlington, with all three of the added money victories coming on the turf at 1 1/16-miles. Bramble Queen benefitted from having the opportunity to lay up for part of the year, and once again Dini’s patience paid dividends with the mare’s soundness and with the longevity of her career as she made 38 starts.
“Her best running style (coming from off the pace) is if she’s able to relax and make one run,” said Dini. “Sometimes she’d get in those paceless races, she’d lay a little closer than she should. We sort of gave her winters off too, because she was a turf horse. The same with her sister Bramble Bay. When they were young and the turf course closed, they would get a break. We’d bring them back at Tampa to get ready for the summer. She probably won all the Illinois stakes that she ran in except for one because she ran one on the synthetic. She didn’t really like that.”
Regal Rose was purchased by Lustig from Frank Stronach for $10,000. The unraced mare has had a propitious produce record as the dam of Bramble Bay, Bramble Queen, and now Bramble Berry.
Tiny but Mighty
The well-traveled Taylor Madison was another standout in the Dini barn, winning stakes at multiple tracks. Her longevity and consistency found her starting 47 times and running in the money on 22 occasions.
The dark bay mare by Kipling out of Ann’s Classic by Sky Classic scored added money wins in the Nicole’s Dream Stakes at Arlington Park, the Minaret Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, and the Lady Hallie Stakes at Hawthorne. The consistent mare also placed in the Isaac Murphy Handicap, the Suncoast Stakes, and Gasparilla Stakes. The diminutive mare had a huge heart.
“She was just an itty-bitty filly that her owner gave me, and he said, ‘see if you can get her sold.’ I said, I’ll buy her off you for some partners, and he kept a share and he couldn’t believe it,” said Dini. “He told a friend of mine, they were at the yearling sale, ‘give me a thousand dollars and take her home,’ and the guy said, ‘no, no, no.’ So, they sent her to me as a 2-year-old, and they said, ‘I think she can run a little bit.’ She was small, but she could run.”
Battle-tested
Dini’s success with keeping horses sound and ready to run, and those who have a predilection for the grass, are well-known, but one horse in particular who made 80 starts and finished in the money 46 times, including 17 trips to the winner’s circle, has a special place in the conditioner’s heart.
“The war-horse, Rockhurst,” said Dini. “If he was running and you entered him, you knew that you would see the bookkeeper in two days. It was hardly often he missed a check.”
An astute horseman, Dini recognized that the Illinois-bred gelding had potential, and kept a close eye on the son of Pembroke out of the Hawaii-sired mare Gulf Shores.
“Back when I had hardly any horses and gambled… I kept telling the one trainer, put this horse on the grass, so I could bet a little bit on him, and he said, ‘oh I will.’ Finally, I called my one owner, and I said, ‘we need to take this horse.’ He’s like ‘why’, I said, ‘he’s supposed to be on the grass.’ So, we claimed him, and the first time I ran him on the grass he missed the turn. So, I ran him in the dirt and he ran third. So, I said, we’ll run him one more time on the grass. I wanted to make sure that he got around the turn in case he got in trouble. I don’t want to have a horse that gets ruled off. He won his next start, and we gave him six months off. He came back and won a stakes race at Canterbury (As a 6-year-old, Rockhurst won the Honor the Hero Turf Express Stakes). He ran in high allowance races everywhere. He traveled all over the United States.”
And as with many things, Rockhurst got better with age, evolving over time and with that an uncanny ability to place in races against fields with younger talent
A short stop in New Orleans proved to be propitious with several visits to the winner’s circle.
“On my way from Chicago to Tampa, I dropped him off at my friend Mike Stidham’s (barn at the Fair Grounds),” said Dini. “I had him in for one race. Tampa isn’t known for having short turf races, and I left him there (at Stidham’s), and of course the day that I left him, it snowed, and they kept him for two more weeks and he won. And of course, after he won, I was going to ship him to Tampa, and then they had a herpes outbreak. He won four in a row down there before we got him out of there. That was his 10-year-old year. He ran like 11 times., he had seven wins, two seconds, and a third.”
Rockhurst’s love of running and competitive spirit left an indelible impression on his trainer, and it was his courage and strength of character that Dini remembers most.
“I’d like to have more like him. He was a hard knocker,” said Dini. “And finally, as an 11-year-old, he was about ready to race. He ran as a 10-year-old, I think he made another $80,000. As an 11-year-old, we were going to race him, and then he got an injury on his other leg, The owners called me, ‘you can get one more from him’, and I said, ‘no, no, no, this horse has been too good to us, he’ll leave himself on the racetrack, he needs to go home.’”
Lucky Linkage
However, it was a son of Unbridled that gave Dini his first graded stakes winner, the bay gelding had been bred by Leonard Lavin’s Glen Hill Farm and was conditioned initially by Tom Proctor before the opportunity to take the future added money for a tag presented itself.
“Connections was claimed at Arlington before they had synthetic,” said Dini. “When we claimed him, in reality, I told the owner (Ruman Stable), who was my sponsor, ‘this horse, I’m not guaranteeing he’s going to be great, he’s going to win the two other than at Hawthorne because the meet will get easier and we’ll have to go from there.’ Then he got beat in a photo, and I took him to Keeneland, and he won and I was going to run him in a stake, and of course the next morning, he had a chip in his knee. Got the chip removed, gave him the winter off, and come back, and he just seemed to love synthetic.”
The layoff paid dividends for Connections, as he came back stronger than ever, winning a 6-furlong allowance race on the Polytrack.
“When I ran him at Keeneland, they all laughed because he was in against Pletcher and a strong field, and if you look at the chart, he blew them away on the synthetic,” said Dini. “He was just something else. He was a fast son of a gun. In fact, we won the Kennedy Road (G3) and broke the track record at Woodbine. He ended up getting a tendon and retiring. I gave him to someone for a riding horse.”
Preparation Paradise
A longtime fixture at Tampa Bay Downs in the winter, Dini started going to the East Coast tracks about eight years ago and is based at Monmouth Park in the summer. Consistently among the leading trainers at Tampa, he sees the benefits of racing at the Oldsmar, Fla-based track during the winter.
“As far as being at Tampa and training your horses, it’s just a much safer track, one of the safest surfaces in the country, for getting horses ready,” said Dini. “So, every year I try to get in here, and I usually come with some less expensive horses, lose them, and then bring in the Bramble Queen’s connections and Rockhurst, like in March to get them ready to go up north. It’s just so much better that way. Carl Nafzger said the same thing when he won the Derby (in 2007). He ran him (Street Sense) at Tampa where he knew he would stay sound.”
The racing at Tampa Bay Downs continues to be dynamic, with many of the runners going on to compete on the national stage.
“I love Tampa, it’s great for getting horses conditioned,” said Dini. “The track seems to get the horses sound and going good before they leave here. You come out of here ready. If you can pay your bills and keep even here, you’re in great shape.”
