Horse Trainer Launches U.S. Senate Bid

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dale Romans, a Thoroughbred horse trainer who has long been a fixture at the Saratoga Race Course, formally announced a bid for the U.S. Senate on Nov. 12. Romans, a Democrat, will seek to replace Mitch McConnell, the longtime Republican senator from Kentucky who is retiring at the end of his current term.

Kentucky’s two senators, McConnell and Rand Paul, are both Republicans. A Democrat hasn’t held a U.S. senate seat in Kentucky since Wendell Ford retired in 1999. The New York Times called Romans the “Democrats’ latest long shot.”

Kentucky’s primary election will occur in May.

Romans has called himself an “independent Democrat” who is “committed to restoring trust in government by putting aside the partisan nonsense.” In his campaign launch video, Romans said he “wouldn’t be beholden to the [Democratic] party, but also wouldn’t be a puppet to the president, like a Republican freshman senator would have to be.” 

Like many successful trainers, Romans has been a regular presence in Saratoga during track season. According to the Thoroughbred Daily News, 2024 was Romans’ 32nd-straight summer at the Spa. (“I always say Saratoga is like a box store in Manhattan,” Romans told the publication in a Q&A last year. “You are never going to make money. It’s expensive here. But you have to have a presence if you want to be at the top of the game.”) Last summer, Romans appeared at a New York Racing Association (NYRA) breeding farm tour at Old Tavern Farm in Saratoga. In 2015, his horse Keen Ice famously upset American Pharoah in the Travers Stakes.