Does Uncle Lino have a chance at the Preakness? These two old friends hope so

There they were, two old friends from Pleasanton, Calif., looking at the horse they say can beat Nyquist and win the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

Gary Sherlock, the trainer of Uncle Lino, stood back leaning against a fence early Thursday outside his stall at Pimlico Race Course while Tom Mansor, the principal owner, inspected the horse and held court in front of more than a half-dozen friends and family.

“We’ve got the mayor of Pleasanton over there,” Mansor tells a gullible reporter.

It wasn’t.

They were asked what was the craziest thing they did five-and-a-half decades ago at Amador High School, which sits less than a mile from the Pleasanton Fairgrounds Racetrack.

“We ain’t telling,” Mansor said, injecting an expletive just for color.

“Our lawyers say no,” Sherlock jumps in. “But he knows [what we did].”

“I can’t talk in front of my son and daughter anyway,” Mansor said before moving to another topic.

Everyone should have as much fun as this veteran trainer and owner with their very first horse in a Triple Crown race.

This is Uncle Lino’s first race outside of Southern California. He won the California Chrome Stakes at Los Alamitos less than three weeks ago. He was third in the Santa Anita Derby.

Today, Pleasanton, located about 25 miles east of Oakland, is considered an affluent suburb. But when this pair was growing up, most everyone in the town was connected to the race track.

“In the old days, if you went to the backside, half the people there lived in Pleasanton, every owner, trainer, jock,” Mansor said.

“Remember Skinny?” he asked Sherlock. “He was 6 feet tall but he rode. He was like a sail.”

Both Mansor and Sherlock’s fathers were jockeys in the 1940s. Sherlock’s mother was a racing secretary and steward.

Eventually they both came south. Mansor, who now lives in San Diego, is semi-retired from the healthcare business. Sherlock landed at Los Alamitos, where he was a successful quarter horse and thoroughbred trainer for 15 years.

When Sherlock left Los Alamitos in 1980, he was the track’s third-leading all-time trainer.

“I had a good career there, but I also had a wife and two kids,” Sherlock said. “So I gave away all my horses and came to Santa Anita with no clients. I decided to raise my family.”

Since Los Alamitos ran at night, it made for an endless day. Santa Anita races during the day.

Five years later, Sherlock had to quit when he was diagnosed with a dissected carotid artery.

“I didn’t do anything for a year,” Sherlock said. “I just tried to get healthy. The doctors didn’t want me around horses [so I quit training]. I sold equine insurance for 10 years. The problem was I basically had the same schedule, but I didn’t have a barn.”

It was an easy life for Sherlock and he could have stayed in it indefinitely, but he missed the horses and the barn, so he came back to training.

Sherlock and Mansor didn’t stay real close, but would always touch base at high school reunions.

“I went off raising a family of six kids,” Mansor said. “I really didn’t get back into the race track until five or six years ago. I bought a couple horses and had Gary, among other guys, train them.”

Sherlock was headed to the Keeneland sale when Mansor gave him some money. What resulted was the purchase of a horse that would be named Uncle Lino for $52,000. So far, he has earned almost $320,000.

The horse’s sire was Uncle Mo, the same as Nyquist, so the first part of the name was easy.

Growing up, Manor was often cared for by his Uncle Lino, while his parents were away on the racing circuit.

“He was an uncle, father, brother and, later in life, a good friend,” Mansor said. “He passed away a few years ago and I got a hair to name a horse after him. But you hate to name a horse after someone because you don’t know how the horse will turn out.”

Clearly, he’s turned out pretty well.

Mansor has been to every one of his races, traveling from his home in San Diego to Del Mar, Santa Anita and Los Alamitos.

Uncle Lino, at 20-1 on the morning line, drew the No. 2 post position. He’s a horse that likes to go to the lead and did so in the Santa Anita Derby before surrendering to Exaggerator and Mor Spirit.

“I always knew he just wasn’t mentally there, [going into the Santa Anita Derby],” Sherlock said of Uncle Lino. “He was kind of losing it when he was saddled. He was just like a little kid, too excited and wanted to go.”

Sherlock said the colt has matured a lot since then, saying: “If we don’t hit the board [and finish first, second or third], I’ll be disappointed.”

Uncle Lino did not have the best draw as he will go from the second post. It will probably force him to go to the lead, which he will likely hold well into the backstretch. Nyquist, running from the three, will likely be on the outside of him in second or third.

From there, anything can happen. It’s why they run the races. And it’s why Sherlock and Mansor are here.

“It’s nice to give your horses to someone who is not a stranger,” Mansor said about Sherlock. “He’s an old school horseman, tons of experience and trains horses the way I like. He takes his time if they need a rest. Some things come with age.”

Just like an old friendship.

john.cherwa@latimes.com

Twitter: @jcherwa

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