Nazario hoping For the Ladies continues progress
Gave trainer his first stakes win with Big T score
The Biz
September 18, 2026
Pedro Nazario started his training stable with a couple of his own horses and no ready-made roster of owners. Five years later, he has his first stakes winner — and a chance to add another Saturday.
For the Ladies, claimed for $25,000, gave Nazario that breakthrough in the $75,000 Shine Again Stakes at Timonium. She is entered in Saturday’s $100,000 Weather Vane Stakes, a six-furlong test for fillies and mares at Laurel Park. The 4-year-old has won three straight to improve to four wins from eight starts with earnings of $154,810.
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For a trainer whose business largely involves claiming horses for $5,000 or $7,500, the purchase represented a sizable investment. It also reflected the approach that has helped him build a career record of 70 wins from 794 starts with earnings approaching $1.6 million.
Nazario said he looks for back class, useful speed figures and horses whose appearance suggests they can improve. For the Ladies’ early races in New York caught his attention, as did a subsequent turf effort at Delaware Park. Her breeder, Diane Krasznay, also encouraged the claim, suggesting the filly could benefit from his smaller operation. Nazario’s wife became her groom.
The filly won the day Nazario claimed her, won again for her new trainer, then stepped into stakes company. At Timonium, she supplied another kind of progress: a horse who had preferred the lead settled behind rivals before getting up late under Raul Mena.
For the Ladies is 15-1 on the Weather Vane morning line. Mena retains the mount, and the pair will leave from post five.
Nazario had been galloping her behind horses, teaching her to accept dirt and relax. He thought Timonium’s tight turns helped, too.
“I think we can give her another shot,” Nazario said of returning to stakes company. “I think she’s feeling good, and I mean, with that race under her belt, I think she’s gonna be good for that race.”
Raised in Mexico, Nazario came to the United States in 1999. His first racetrack job was hotwalking for trainer Michael Gorham. Randy Nunley later taught him to ride and helped him obtain an assistant trainer’s license.
Nazario worked for Ferris Allen and Kelly Rubley. With Rubley, he galloped Divisidero and accompanied him to the 2018 Breeders’ Cup.
Nazario still gallops some of his own runners and said that galloping his horses can reveal things he cannot see from the rail: a horse may look comfortable traveling but feel otherwise beneath him.
His independent career began when Rubley sent him from Fair Hill to Delaware Park. When her horses were headed back, he stayed with his own. Delaware remains his year-round home base.
Like all trainers, Nazario is always on the lookout for new owners and new horses. For now, he offers a small stable built around his wife and employees who have been with him since he started.
As Nazario put it, “Our operation is more like a family… Your horse is going to be well taken care of and well trained.”
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