The 132nd Preakness is three weeks away, but Maryland racing is headed for Kentucky and the first jewel of the Triple Crown.
Ellicott City native Mario Pino will have his first mount in the Kentucky Derby Saturday, while horse owner Domenico Zannino, a Baltimore County resident, will likelyenter his colt Xchanger in the 133rd running of the Derby.
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Pino, 45, will ride in his first Derby atop the Larry Jones-trained Hard Spun. His 5,888 wins through the weekend make him the winningest jockey in Maryland racing history and rank him 16th all-time. He has had two mounts in the Preakness before, but never the Derby.
“It is like being in the World Series or Super Bowl with the 20 best 3-year-olds in the country running on this one day,” Pino said.
Hard Spun has won five of six starts. Pino will have a busy day Saturday, with a mount in the Grade I Humana Distaff and the Grade II Churchill Downs Handicap.
“I get up thinking about it and go to bed thinking about it,” Pino said. “When the post positions come out, I guess I’ll start thinking more about the race.”
Twenty-four horses are Derby-eligible, but only the top 20 in graded-stakes earnings will make the cut. Zannino expects Elkton-based Xchanger, ranked 14th by earnings, to be in that field. He and trainer Mark Shuman had contemplated holding Xchanger out of the Derby and saving him for the Preakness, but with a strong week of work, the odds are high that Xchanger will be at Churchill Downs.
Xchanger won the Federico Tesio Stakes, a Preakness prep race, in the opening weekend at Pimlico last month.
“Right now, we are pointing in that direction,” Zannino said. “He is training incredibly and I feel as though he wants it.”
Ramon Dominguez rode the colt in the Federico Tesio Stakes, but as of Monday, Zannino and Shuman were still trying to find a rider.
“We are weighing up who is available now or who could become available,” Zannino said.
The owner also said that he has been entertaining several offers to sell Xchanger. The price tag for the colt is expected to be seven figures.
