(Cyclone Mischief / Photo by Holly M. Smith)

Cyclone Mischief Still A Mystery:

The post-time favorite for the G3 Holy Bull was Cyclone Mischief, another son of the grand sire Into Mischief. The late April foal (nearly May) rolled into the Stakes off a super-impressive allowance win at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 8 and on some serious momentum.

But after a stalking and troubled trip — when it appeared that he was tugging to go on, but was trapped in-between a wall of horses on all sides — Cyclone dissipated to a small puff when the real serious running began. The colt backed up to finish a non-threatening 7th in the field of 8, beating only Mr. Bob.

After the race, Cyclone’s rider, Tyler Gaffalione, sounded perplexed:

“At the quarter pole he started making a little bit of noise and he switched to his off lead, and that was it. But he pulled up fine we’ll see what we’ve got next time.”

We chatted with trainer Dale Romans, via text messaging, on Monday, Feb. 6. We asked if there was any new updates on the colt. This was Dale’s response:

“Came out of the race fine. We will try again.”