5 Questions with Mark Romeo (Terra Racing Stable)

Horse racing has been a fixture in the Romeo family lore for over four decades. Starting with family patriarch Dom, a dedicated horseman and the originator of the Romeo’s Terra Racing Stable moniker, the Thoroughbred tradition remains alive and well through his sons Mark and Frank.

The family-first operation has produced several top horses over the years, including 2010 Queen’s Plate champion Big Red Mike, three-time graded stakes winning mare Amalfi Coast, two-time graded stakes winner Fashionably Fab, graded stakes winner Flashy n Smart (Grade 3 Virginia Handicap), and multiple stakes winner Bold n’ Flashy.

Ahead of his fifth season as co-owner of Terra Racing Stable, Mark reflected on the moments that ignited his passion for the game, as well as the ones that keep it burning bright.

Q: There have been many outstanding moments for Terra Racing. What race, other than Big Red Mike’s Plate win, stands out as the most memorable for you and why?

A: “That’s a tough one because there have been several highlight races over the years. It’s hard to really pick one, but I’ll start with Amalfi Coast winning the Grade 2 Bessarabian at Woodbine in November of 2019. She was three. We had won a couple of graded races, but not a lot and she was just such a nice filly. That was a real nice win for us.

“She won the Royal North on the grass two years later in August of 2021. She won that one by a nose, and I mean it was a fine nose.

“They were both two Grade 2 races, and the only two Grade 2 races we ever won.”

Q: What is your first memory of going to the racetrack?

A: “My first memory is back in the early 80s. We ran second to Sunny’s Halo twice with a horse named Rising Young Star. I was in my early teens, and of course, Sunny’s Halo went on to win the Kentucky Derby the following year in 1983, so this was the fall of ’82, and we ran second to him in the Grey Stakes and the Coronation Futurity.

“At the time, we didn’t know Sunny’s Halo was going to win the Kentucky Derby, but looking back, it was probably one of the first memories that I have. I had only been going to the track a couple years, but Rising Young Star was our first really good horse that I remember.”

Q: This is the epitome of a family affair. What does it mean to share these successes with your family?

A: “It started with my dad, and I think a lot of people can probably say that. My dad was very involved and loved racing. My brother, Frank, and I have really followed suit with him. We actually bought him out in 2020, so Frank and I now own Terra Racing Stable. He divested himself from the stable, but the family is still growing.

“All three of my sons go to the track. Frank’s son Mike is much older than my sons and he is very involved with the stable. He often brings his two young sons to the track. Frank’s youngest daughter also comes out with her two kids.

“Frank and I really love the sport, and we are sharing it with our kids. We are continuing the family affair my dad started.”

Q: What goes through your mind whenever you see the Terra Farms silks on the racetrack?

A: “My dad loved the movie Gone With the Wind. He heard Terra, which means Earth, in the movie and it stuck with him. That’s where the name Terra originated from. My father came up with it in the early 90s when he branched off on his own – he used to have partners in the 80s – and he called it Terra Racing Stable. Whenever I think of the name Terra, it comes back to Gone With the Wind.”

Q: Is there a particular horse you have shared a special bond with over the years?

A: “I would say Bold n’ Flashy. I go back to him, probably because I was going to the track a lot more back then. He was the first stakes winner my dad had on his own, and he was running around early 90s. He won a lot of stakes races. He ran a lot, obviously back then, we ran horses more than we do today, but he ran a lot. He was a real speed ball, and he was a good-looking horse – all black.

“He was a bit of a five-furlong specialist on the turf, and they didn’t have five furlong racing at Woodbine at the time. My dad used to travel, and he went all over the place. He went to California a couple of times, Chicago, Pimlico, Churchill Downs, Meadowlands, Monmouth. He even took the horse to Paris to run in a Group 1 race [Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp]. I actually went, which was my first time overseas. That was a big thrill to be able to go to Paris to run a horse, it’s not something you do every day.

“I flew on a different plane than the horse did, but we flew around the same time. I got a chance to go to see the horse at the airport at Pearson, and they had him – I had never seen this – in this big stall, and a forklift would drive it on to one of those 747, or whatever big planes they used to put them on. When I got to Paris, I went to the terminal, and I met the trainer and the horse and went to the racetrack with them. It was just a really cool thing to experience.”

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Matthew Lomon, for Woodbine