Mike Dini

Born: November 1, 1960 | Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois | Residence: Oldsmar, FL

First Win: Glen Savoye, Thistledown, 1995 | Started Training: 1995, Thistledown

Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, New York, Presque Isle Downs, Mid-Atlantic

Dini has forged a successful decade-long relationship with Ballybrit Stable, owned by Dr. Alan Lustig of Seminole, Fla. Their mare Dynatail won four stakes over a five-year racing career while compiling earnings of $546,475. Other quality performers for the Dini/Ballybrit pairing include such stakes winners as Bramble Queen and Bramble Bay and graded-stakes placed Bird’s Eye View, a gelding who earned almost $400,000. Bramble Bay, a Ballybrit Stable homebred, won the Jersey Girl Handicap in July at Monmouth Park for the second time in three years. Bramble Queen, also a homebred, is a two-time winner of the Illini Princess Handicap at Hawthorne who also won a stakes at Arlington. Dini joined the club of graded stakes-winning trainers in 2007 via a victory by Connections in the Grade III Kennedy Road Stakes at Woodbine. The conditioner achieved a career milestone on Oct. 15, 2021 at Meadowlands, notching career victory No. 500 with 2-year-old Florida-bred colt Merokee, still another Ballybrit performer. As a teenager in the Chicago area, Dini became interested in horses by caring for equines owned by his uncle, a member of the Medinah Black Horse Troop, which raises money to benefit Shriners Hospitals for children. Before taking out his trainer’s license, Dini worked as a groom for Noel Hickey, known as the trainer of 1998 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Buck’s Boy.