Blame it on Rockin Rosy. The current success that Dorothy Leonard and Perry Johnson are enjoying with Florida-bred stakes winner Romancin Dixie can be traced back to the now 26-year-old mare. And Rockin Rosy can also be credited with playing matchmaker for Leonard and Johnson.

While working for her father Albert Leonard, who was a trainer, Leonard fell in love with Rockin Rosy at first sight. Leonard always had a penchant for grays and Rockin Rosy definitely caught her eye.

"She was and still is the prettiest horse I have ever seen, recalled Leonard. I just had to have her. When her trainer wouldn't sell her to me, I claimed her."

It was also love at first sight when Johnson first spotted Leonard, leading Rockin Rosy to the saddling paddock at Tampa Bay Downs in 1977. "I just had to meet her," said Johnson, who was a horseman and real estate broker at the time. "So the next time I saw her coming out of the racing secretary's office at Tampa, I introduced myself."

From that introduction, Leonard and Johnson have been together for 25 years now. And Rockin Rosy, having had her last foal in 1991, is a pensioner at their Blue Hammer Farm in Morriston. The couple leases the 50-acre farm, which Leonard named in honor of her father's Sioux Indian heritage. The blue hammer name is derived from what is an Indian war hammer.

When Leonard and Johnson met, each had their own farms in Hudson and Plant City, Florida, respectively. In 1989, both sold their places and moved to Alabama. They bought a 100-acre farm and settled in to support the fledgling racing industry there. When Birmingham Race Course didn't do as well as had been expected, the couple moved back to Florida and the Ocala area in 1995.

Getting back to Rockin Rosy. Leonard's father trained Rockin Rosy for her and the daughter of Peace Corps went on to become a stakes winner of $47,014. Retired to broodmare duty, Rockin Rosy produced six foals, five which raced and four who went on to become winners. Among the latter was stakes-placed Confederate Rose, an earner of $53,633.

Rockin Rosy's last foal in 1991 was Miss Dixie Doright, who is the dam of Romancin Dixie. The now 3-year-old gray filly by Dove Hunt won the Suncoast Stakes in February and followed that with a runner-up finish in the Florida Oaks (G3) in March. The filly's talent comes as no surprise to Leonard.

"She is the spitting image of her grandmother," said Leonard of Romancin Dixie, who also goes by the nickname of Face. "I just knew she was going to be good one."

Still fond of grays, Leonard early on connected the color to the gray of the South's Confederacy and chooses names that reflect that. In addition to Confederate Rose, Miss Dixie Doright and Romancin Dixie, there's been My Southern Rose, Dixie Gray, Dixie Rain Dancer, Dixie Red Wing and Southern Royalty.

Leonard, 65, and Johnson, 68, are hands-on breeders, owners and trainers. They currently have five broodmares and another 10 head of various offspring of those mares. Leonard admits that she loves her babies and has only outright sold two of her horses in her lifetime of being in the business. They did try to sell Romancin Dixie as a 2-year-old in training, but bought her back when she didn't meet her reserve.

They don't start the breaking process until the young horses are two, beginning with ground work on the farm. "If a horse matures quickly and tells us its ready to move on, we might race a little late in their two year old season", said Johnson. "But we don't believe in pushing a young horse."

Except for the month of April, the couple bases their training operation at the Ocala Breeders Sales Company's Training Center. "We've both done the racetrack scene," said Johnson. "And now we like being home and shipping to the races. It's better for us and it's better for the horses."

Once the April juvenile sale is over, Leonard and Johnson will resume training at OBS. Expected back will be Romancin Dixie, who is currently getting some much deserved downtime on the farm, as well as Southern Royalty. The latter is a 4-year-old colt by Out of Place out of Dixie Red Wing, by Red Wing Bold, and who broke his maiden in 2001. That duo will likely be joined by Romancin Dixies half-sister Halo Dixie Land, a 2000 filly by Halo's Image.

"We have a good life," said Leonard. "The horses have been good to us and we've been good to the horses."

No doubt Rockin Rosy would agree.