Contenders

     Scored with his first Preakness mount, 2005 champion 3-year-old Afleet Alex, and was third with his other two starters, Icabad Crane in 2008 and Hemingway’s Key in 2006. In addition to Afleet Alex, who went on to win the Belmont Stakes, the 30-year-old Elkton resident has won top races at Pimlico, Belmont, Woodbine, Turfway and elsewhere.
     He showed horses as a youngster and later worked in Puerto Rico, breaking horses for family friend, then took a job as a stable hand for trainer Mike Petro as a groom, hotwalker and exercise rider.
     He took out his riders’ license in 2000 and won his first race Sept. 23 that year. He won the Eclipse for top apprentice in 2001 after winning 312 races with his mounts earning nearly $4.46 million. He won his 1,000th race at Delaware July 3, 2005.
     An excellent softball player, he was also a talented wrestler as a high school student in his native Pennsylvania, finishing second in the 103-pound class in 1998.

     The granddaughter of John Olin, who bred and owned Cannonade, winner of the 100th Kentucky Derby in 1974, Mrs. Dilschneider can see the St. Louis arch from her hometown, across the Mississippi River in Alton, Ill. Her family tree includes William Levis, founder of Corning-Illinois Glass, the largest manufacturer of Midwestern beer bottles, and Franklin Olin, founder of equitable Powder Co., the forerunner of Olin Industries, a group of firearm, ammo and chemical companies based in Missouri.
     Mrs. Dilschneider is heavily involved in philanthropic endeavors: She sits on the Missouri Lupus Foundation and Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation boards and is involved in many St. Louis-area cultural, civic and educational organizations. She is also associated with the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, the American Horse Council, the Kentucky Derby Museum, the National Museum of Racing and the Thoroughbred Club of America as well as Washington University in St. Louis.

     LSU-educated 47-year-old who holds a degree in geology, he’s the son of a Fair Grounds Hall of Famer and 30-year commissioner of racing in Louisiana and a former assistant to National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame inductee Jack Van Berg and Frank Brothers.
     His best horse to date is probably Joyeux Danseur, winner of the Grade 1 Early Times at Churchill Downs. Bases of operation are in Louisiana and Kentucky. One of Claiborne Farm’s trainers, that position gave him the opportunity to meet Adele Dilschneider.

     The dam, Minery, was a minor stakes winner who brings the most powerful branch of Tartan Farm breeding with her: He dam, Orseno, is a daughter of Gana Facil, who also produced Florida Derby-Kentucky Derby-Preakness runner-up Unbridled as well as Wood Memorial winner Cahill Road. Gana Facil is a daughter of Magic, she a half-sister to Hall of Famers Dr. Fager and Ta Wee and two other stakes winners.
     The granddaughter of John Olin, who bred and owned Cannonade, winner of the 100th Kentucky Derby in 1974, Mrs. Dilschneider can see the St. Louis arch from her hometown, across the Mississippi River in Alton, Ill. Her family tree includes William Levis, founder of Corning-Illinois Glass, the largest manufacturer of Midwestern beer bottles, and Franklin Olin, founder of equitable Powder Co., the forerunner of Olin Industries, a group of firearm, ammo and chemical companies based in Missouri.
     Mrs. Dilschneider is heavily involved in philanthropic endeavors: She sits on the Missouri Lupus Foundation and Grayson-Jockey Club Research