Spotlight: Brielle Roman

While many harness racing stories begin with family or friends, Brielle Roman’s began purely because of her love of horses. “I don’t come from a horsey family at all. I was just born liking horses. I did riding horses when I was younger; I used to work at barns just so I could ride horses.”

“When I was little we lived very close to Freehold Raceway and my dad took me there a couple times to watch races.” Not knowing anything about horses himself, Mr. Roman didn’t know that these trips to the half-mile oval foreshadowed his daughter’s future passion and that she would one day find herself in the winner’s circle there.

Brielle’s first hands-on interaction with Standardbreds was in 2016 when she was in the market for a new riding horse and was offered a cheap Standardbred filly. “I didn’t want her because I was under the impression that Standardbreds couldn’t canter and they couldn’t do this and that. Then I saw her and I just fell in love with her.”

Roman paid just $400 for the filly and the purchase turned out to be well worth it. “She was just the coolest horse ever. She had such a great temperament and was really sturdy. She became a really really really good show horse; she competed nationally and everything. I was really impressed how she was a standardbred and she had all of those nice qualities.”

Roman was so impressed that she went on to work at a Standardbred rescue for a year and learned more about retraining them. She most admired the willing attitude of the breed.

Looking for some more insight on harness racing to better understand the background of her riding pupils, Roman jumped on an opportunity to work in a racing barn. “My friend got me a job with Gary Candell and I got to take care of really nice horses like Sunfire Blue Chip and Great Vintage. That was my first job with race horses and I loved it.”

Roman loved it so much that she quickly dove headfirst into the world of harness racing, “I got really into it and bought a couple of race horses of my own and started training on my own as well.”

She was quickly introduced to one of the harsh realities of harness racing: that luck isn’t always going to be on your side. Her first racing prospect was a horse that she used to take care of; she tracked him down in Amish country and brought him back to rehab him. She eventually got him qualified, then two days before his first race back he injured himself in the field and had to be retired.

Roman didn’t let that discourage her, she saved up her money and bought a mare to try again. Unfortunately another freak accident occurred, the mare tripped walking back to the barn and, unable to correct her footing in time, shattered her pastern bone. “I was devastated. There was nothing I could do to help the horse. I wanted to give up, I was like, ‘Maybe it’s not meant to be.’”

Finally, her luck began to turn around. She was offered an unwanted trotter who had sat in a field for five years named The Boxer. “I needed something to do,” so she took him on. “I just expected I would just jog him for a month and then break him to ride and adopt him out to someone. But he trained all the way back, he qualified, and he actually won a race at Freehold.”

According to Roman, “It was a meant-to-be connection. He got all of his fastest times with me. He’s a very sweet horse. I became very emotionally invested in him because that was what got me through that whole bad time period was just going out there every day and jogging him and seeing him get a little closer to racing each day.”

She built up a little stable with a handful of horses that primarily race at Freehold and has since made over $100,000 in trainer earnings, which is a big accomplishment for a 28-year-old first-generation horsewoman.

Roman has also put her talents of retraining Standardbreds to good use, she founded and runs Trot-Trot Standardbreds, a 501c3 charity that retrains and rehomes Standardbreds and follows up on them for the rest of their lives. She has found homes for over 30 horses since its inception and has also been successful at rehabbing horses with injuries. “It’s really rewarding to see them go on to second careers,” Roman says.

She also runs a Facebook group, “Standardbred Retraining Group” which has grown into an online community with over 32,000 members passionate about giving a second career to harness horses. Roman’s advocacy for the breed doesn’t stop there, she also helped bring the USTA’s “Standardbred Incentive Program” to fruition.

Though she may not be the most decorated trainer, Brielle Roman’s passion for Standardbred horses makes her a valuable asset to the harness racing industry and no matter what life throws at her, a fighter will remain.

By Katie Eick, for Freehold Raceway