Winning Ponies

Albertrani was born March 21, 1958 in Brooklyn, N.Y., and now resides in Garden City, N.Y. He first went to work walking hots and grooming horses for his uncle, trainer Jack Abatemarco. He started learning the basics with his uncle and eventually went on to become a jockey. The family moved from Brooklyn to Valley Stream when Albertrani was 10. In order to begin riding sooner before he grew too big, Albertrani took part in an accelerated program at Valley Stream High School on Long Island and completed his course work early in 1976. Broke in as an apprentice in New York and New Jersey at the age of 19, but was still busy in the morning working as an exercise rider. “I was kind of doing both. I was galloping horses and picking up a mount here and there. Then he began working for trainer Mark Casse, first as an exercise rider/jockey and then as assistant trainer. He was introduced to trainer Bill Mott through Casse and had the opportunity to gallop top fillies Heatherten and Sefa's Beauty . He stayed in New Yor