Back at Pimlico, Pino Enjoys Home Cooking

BALTIMORE, May 18 -- Many jockeys go through great pains to make weight, starving themselves at the dinner table and spending far too much time in the steam box trying to shed that one extra pound.

Mario Pino, however, has no problem holding steady at 115 pounds, even at the age of 45, when middle-age spread usually begins to gather at the belt line.

So with a house full of family and friends celebrating his Triple Crown adventure on Hard Spun, Pino could afford to indulge the other night in a little homemade Italian cooking.

"My mother, father, me, my aunt, we all cooked," Pino's wife, Christina, said Friday. "We had 25 pounds of rigatoni -- gone. And my little daughter Evana baked cookies."

No jockey has been to the winner's circle more times at Maryland tracks than Pino. Yet, befitting his blue-collar reputation, he has just two meet riding titles at Pimlico in 28 years on the circuit. Meantime, his two prior Preakness Stakes mounts, Escambia Bay in 1981 and Menacing Dennis in 2002, were hopeless long shots.

But this afternoon, Pino will go with Hard Spun into the starting gate for the Grade I $1 million Preakness as one of the favorites to win the second leg of Triple Crown.

Since finishing second to Street Sense two weeks ago in the Kentucky Derby, Pino has lived inside a bubble of goodwill. For years, he toiled in the shadows of riders Kent Desormeaux, Edgar Prado and Ramon Dominguez, each of whom left Maryland to achieve greater glory at the country's biggest racetracks. But now, Pino, who chose to spend his entire career in Maryland -- with forays into Delaware -- stands center stage.

"It's awesome," Pino said. "I'm coming to my own town and have fans who bet on me every day and make me 8-5 when I should be 4-1. But my neighbors are fans now, and they're not into horse racing, and they say they're going to the Preakness. I say, 'Great.' It's a warm feeling."

Since the Derby, and even a bit before, every day has been Pino Day. A big welcome-home party met him when he returned from Louisville. The family had the big dinner Thursday night. He held a news conference -- the second in his life -- Thursday in the Pimlico press box, and on Friday the Maryland Jockey Club honored him in the winner's circle after the fifth race. The local jockey colony acts as if he is representing them.

"After the Derby, everyone came up and congratulated him on doing such a good job," said Pino's longtime valet, Richie Ramkhelawan. "They're not teasing him."

If Pino is to win the Preakness with Hard Spun, he is going to have to find a way to deal with the power of Street Sense. In the Derby, Hard Spun revealed his quality, showing excellent speed after fighting off early challengers and carrying it 1 1/4 miles before finishing second.

With fleet long shot Flying First Class in the Preakness field, Pino likely will have to ask Hard Spun to stalk the pace for at least a half-mile, but then again, he might just ambush the field as he did at Churchill Downs.

"He could go around those turns faster than a mouse around a cracker barrel," said Joe Kelly, the resident historian at Pimlico.

Pino is not sure how the race will unfold and said he will rely on his instincts when the gate opens, but he definitely believes in his home-course advantage.

"There is an edge," Pino said. "I've won thousands of races here. I've ridden thousands of races here. It's a home-field edge like in basketball and football. Just like [Street Sense jockey] Calvin [Borel] had at Churchill Downs. He rode that rail with confidence."

Borel arrived at Pimlico on Friday morning ready to go.

"Right now, I don't think he can get beat," Borel said of Street Sense after looking in on his colt at the stakes barn. "As good as he's doing, I'm positive he'd have to fall or have something happen bad for him to get beat because after I worked him this week it was unbelievable. I couldn't believe he would go forward after running in the Kentucky Derby, with the race that he run there, and come back and work that good. If he don't fall, there's no way he'll be getting beat."

The other horses that could threaten are Curlin, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, and Circular Quay, who finished sixth. Both had difficult journeys at Churchill Downs, and both maintained the confidence of their trainers.

"He didn't run a bad race in the Derby," Todd Pletcher said of Circular Quay. "I think with a little different trip he could have been a little closer. I think maybe because he had eight weeks [off] before the Derby, now it may pay dividends in this race."

Pino hopes the closers find traffic in front of them, and Hard Spun gets the same clear trip he had in Kentucky.

"I watched the overhead cam and said, 'How does [Street Sense] get past all those horses?' " Pino said, still marveling at the Derby winner's racing luck. "It was like a gift from God. I could have been the Derby winner."