Katie's Love Puts Alberts Back in Winner's Circle

BALTIMORE, May 26 -- Until Saturday, Nancy Alberts hadn't won a stakes race since July 20, 2002, when her wondrous gelding Magic Weisner captured the $300,000 Ohio Derby at Thistledown after finishing second to War Emblem at odds of 46-1 in that year's Preakness Stakes.

Alberts enjoyed her brief stay in the spotlight, and Magic Weisner helped her buy a new home in Howard County, but her Laurel Park barn had mostly been quiet since then. Katie's Love brought back some of the memories Saturday, rallying through the stretch at Pimlico to catch Hanalei Bay and win the $50,000 Shine Again for Maryland bred fillies and mares that had never won a stakes race.

With jockey Horacio Karamanos pushing relentlessly with three-eighths of a mile to go, the 5-year-old Katie's Love gathered in Hanalei Bay, who had opened a 2 1/2 -length lead. Katie's Love broke from the gate more alertly than usual, but she began to loaf a little before Karamanos roused her to work.

"At the turn, my horse didn't want to go at first, got a little lazy," Karamanos said. "But then she got going. She's a good horse, a class horse."

Alberts looked at Karamanos, who had dirt all over his face, and said: "I forgot to tell you to hit her hard. He had to spank her more than normal."

Katie's Love won the 1 1/16 -mile dirt race in 1 minute, 45.51 seconds for owners Fred and Mary Agnes Leonard of Clarksville.

Magic Weisner, who nearly died after contracting the West Nile virus in the fall of his big year, is living in Alberts's back yard these days. His dam, Jazeema, who provided Alberts so many fast runners, died last July from a twisted intestine at age 17 at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center.

Before she did, however, she gave birth to a filly Alberts named Jazeema's Ginger, who will have an early coming-out party in the 73rd Annual Show of Thoroughbred Yearlings on June 24 at the Timonium Fairgrounds.

"She's just like her mother," Albert said, looking excited at the prospect. "Looks just like her with a cool disposition."

Racing Notes: Jockey Mario Pino lost the mount on Hard Spun for the Belmont Stakes as owner Rick Porter and trainer Larry Jones opted to replace him with Garrett Gomez. Pino, of Ellicott City, guided Hard Spun to a second-place finish behind Street Sense in the Kentucky Derby and then finished third in the Preakness Stakes, won by Curlin, after taking the lead on the backstretch.

Pino and Jones could not be reached for comment. In an article in the industry magazine the Blood-Horse, Porter criticized Pino's ride in the Preakness, saying the jockey didn't follow directions to sit behind the leaders on the backstretch and instead set out to take over by running far too fast too soon.