Pimlico Pino country
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. – The night before the Preakness, Mario Pino won’t have to order room service. He’ll enjoy a casual dinner at home, then get cozy in the living room before sleeping in his own bed.
The next day, Pino will take a leisurely 17-mile drive in his roomy Chevy Tahoe to Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. After tuning up with three rides on a track he knows intimately, the 45-year-old jockey will climb aboard Hard Spun in search of the biggest victory of his 29-year career.
If there’s such a thing as home-track advantage – and the result of the Kentucky Derby suggests there is – then Pino just might end up in the winner’s circle next Saturday after the 132nd running of the Preakness.
Although he’s won nearly 6,000 races, Pino rode in the Derby for the first time on May 5. Despite leading aboard Hard Spun for much of the race, Pino finished second behind Street Sense, who rallied to victory under Churchill Downs veteran Calvin Borel.
“He beat me at Churchill. He’s won thousands of races there and knows the track like the back of his hand. You can see that by the way he ran the race,” Pino said. “I went to Calvin’s country, and he won. But now he’s coming to my country, and I can ride at Pimlico with confidence.”
No one has won more races in Maryland than Pino, who rode his first horse at Pimlico in 1979. He’s on a first-name basis with many of the fans and knows almost everyone who works in the barns. Most important, he has an intimate knowledge of the track’s dirt and its sharp turns.
“If there’s a pebble in the path, he ought to know where it is,” Hard Spun trainer Larry Jones said.
Jones has been to Pimlico only a few times and never had a horse in the Preakness. He’s counting on Pino’s experience to make his fifth visit a good one.
“We’re going to Pino country,” Jones said, “and hopefully, he’ll carry the rest of this team.”
Pino will have an edge before he even gets to the track. When he raced at Churchill Downs, he stayed at a hotel with his wife, Cristina, before driving to the track in a rental car.
Before the Preakness, Pino will be right at home. Cristina plans to whip up a meal of spaghetti and meatballs before the couple settles in with their three daughters to watch some television in the living room.
“He’ll have dinner, he’ll watch TV, he’ll go to bed, he’ll wake up Saturday morning and drive to the track,” Cristina said. “There will be no craziness like at the Derby.”
Pino loved competing in the most prestigious event in horse racing, but he was out of his element in Kentucky. That won’t be an issue with the Preakness.