One Woman Works 'Magic'; Alberts Is Horse's Breeder, Owner, Trainer and More - The Washington Post

One day recently, a phone call to Nancy Alberts in Jessup, Md.,produced a busy signal. Several more attempts also failed. ForAlberts, this was unusual. She almost never takes time for longconversations that would interrupt her work, which begins beforesunup and often ends after sundown. At length, her phone rang and sheanswered.

'You been trying to get me?' she asked. 'This guy wanted to buy myhorse for $1 million and he wouldn't let me go -- for about 35minutes. One million dollars, and I still could have half-ownershipfor the next two or three races.'

She turned him down.

He persisted.

'He said, 'Who's dumb enough to offer you $1 million for agelding?'

'I said, 'About nine other people.' '

The object of their attention is a small 3-year-old bay namedMagic Weisner, a sensation against modest competition on the Marylandtracks early this year but a complete surprise (to most, but not toAlberts) when he stepped up in company to finish a fast-closingsecond in the Preakness to Kentucky Derby winner War Emblem, and thenfourth in the Belmont. Alberts, 56, is Magic Weisner's breeder,owner, trainer, exercise rider and tireless caregiver -- a one-person operation that virtually doesn't exist any more at the TripleCrown level of horse racing.

When Alberts arrived at Pimlico before last month's Preakness,celebrated trainers such as Bob Baffert and Wayne Lukas didn't knowher. But she knew something that had been overlooked by all the well-known horsemen as well as the track's oddsmaker, who installed MagicWeisner at 40-1: She had a live horse for the Preakness.

'I wasn't going to put out $20,000 if I wasn't going to get itback,' she said of the $10,000 it took to enter the race and the$10,000 required to start.

She said this one morning while on her knees in Magic Weisner'sstall in Barn 18 at Laurel Park, wrapping the horse's legs. She callshim Magic. She can be found there tending to him daily, usuallybeginning with a gallop in the half-light. 'He loves to train,' shesaid, describing how sometimes he will accelerate through an openingbetween horses while working on the backside. That's what he did inthe homestretch of the Preakness, falling just short of War Emblem bythree-quarters of a length.

Second place was worth $200,000 to Alberts, the most she has madeon a single day in her long career at Maryland tracks. In that modestsphere, she is known for coaxing the best mostly from horses withoutfancy pedigrees. She had bought Magic Weisner's dam, Jazema, for $1because the horse was so unpromising, crooked-legged and sickly. Shenursed the 2-year-old to full health and a modest career thatincluded 14 victories in minor races. Jazema's biggest victoryoccurred when Alberts had her bred to Maryland-based Ameri Valay.

Alberts liked the match because of the way the two horses hadinteracted when stabled next to each other. Call it love. The resultwas Magic.

Magic lives near a corner of the Laurel barn next to his look-alike brother, 4-year-old Deliver Hope, and 2-year-old half-sister,Jamilah, who has not yet been to the races. Alberts's corner appearsbucolic, but she said, while mixing feed she had poured from heavybags into buckets, 'There's nothing easygoing about the racetrack.'

Four years ago, a kick from a horse tore her spleen in threeplaces, requiring immediate surgery. In March, a horse unexpectedlysat down with her on his back, pinning her against a barn wall andbreaking a bone in her left shoulder. Undaunted, she continued togallop Magic Weisner in the mornings with her arm in a sling. Worstof all, she came down with shingles three years ago and continues tosuffer with pain.

She never goes on vacation or takes a day off. Most of the big-name trainers have stables with scores of horses and plenty of hiredhands to whom they can delegate work. Not Alberts. Only at thePreakness did racing's blue-blood owners and trainers hear of her andtake note of Magic Weisner. Since then, she has been besieged bycallers who want to buy the horse or have her train their horses.

People wonder how long Alberts can resist the money. But then, themore you talk with her, the more you realize she is different.

'He's made a half-million so far,' she said. 'I don't feel anyricher, so when they offer $1 million, I think, 'What's another$500,000 going to do?' Money has never excited me. It can't buyhealth. It can't buy happiness. I'm happy the way things are.'

The only way her life could be better, she said, would be if sheowned her own small farm near Laurel. Now, she rents space at twofarms, where she keeps Jazema and six other horses. 'I'm looking fora little farm that's close by, now that I have a little money,' shesaid.

So how do you pronounce it? 'Wee-sner' or 'Wise-ner'?

'Any way you want,' she said.

When he was 5 months old, Magic Weisner developed a seriousinfection in his left front ankle that threatened his racing career,and his life. She took him to Allen Wisner, a veterinarian in GlenRock, Pa., who treated him and gave him back. 'He said, 'Everythingwent fine, but I don't know if he'll ever make a racehorse,' ' sherecalled. 'But he fixed his leg like magic. I thought Magic soundedkind of cute. But I guess I spelled Wisner with an 'e' when I put thename in.'

So it's pronounced Wis-ner.

No matter how she spelled it, Wisner the vet is flattered becausehe considers Alberts somebody special, part of a vanishing breed ofhorse people committed to a hands-on approach despite the physicaldemands, the often solitary existence and competition from high-powered, well-funded enterprises.

'It used to be that a lot of people made their livelihoods aroundhorses,' Wisner said. 'Now, many are not connected closely with theirhorses. She's totally connected to them. She's a classic horsewoman.'

The youngest of seven children, Alberts grew up in West Chester,Pa., close to the countryside where she developed an interest in theoutdoors. She got a job at Delaware Park with trainer James P.Simpson and worked for him for years. Later, she discovered Jazemaamong Simpson's horses and persuaded the trainer and the horse'sowner to part with her. Simpson knew that if anyone could makesomething of the horse, it was Alberts.

'Only somebody with Nancy's dedication and devotion could makethis all work,' said Simpson, now retired and living in Winchester,Va. 'Hard work doesn't cover what she does, no way. Her devotion toJazema set this whole thing up with Magic Weisner. I'm not surprised,and I'm delighted.'

Last year, Magic Weisner failed to win in his first two starts,but they were short races in which he closed well. So Alberts put himinto a race at a mile and a sixteenth -- and he won by 8 1/2 lengths.In December and early this year, he won four straight stakes races atLaurel and Pimlico.

Leading up to the Preakness, Magic Weisner finished second, hisstring of victories broken. Alberts blamed her jockey for lettingSmoked Em get too far ahead, so for the Preakness she switched toSmoked Em's jockey, Richard Migliore.

Although Magic Weisner was the only horse in the Preakness thathad raced on the track, he had garnered little home-state support bypost time.

The odds on him had risen to 45-1.

Then Magic, 11th early in the race, came roaring home, runner-upat least.

'There was more commotion around me than Baffert,' she recalled.

Everyone wanted to know if she was going to the Belmont.

'New York? It's too far,' she said, at first.

Once she had determined that Magic came out of the race sound, shechanged her mind.

Alberts had never taken a horse to Belmont Park. To her it hadseemed like a journey, until she did it. She and Magic arrived earlyin the afternoon on Friday, the eve of the Belmont Stakes.

'If I had it to do over,' she said, 'I would have gone up a coupledays earlier. There was no rest once he got there. He was toointerested in looking around. He needed a couple days to lie down andget some sleep.'

The race did not go as well as the Preakness had. Magic came outof the gate nicely only to have the heavy favorite, War Emblem, tohis left, take a bad step and tumble into him. They both straightenedaway and cut toward the rail from their outside posts. After three-quarters of a mile in the 1 1/2-mile race, with running room aheadand a chance to win the Triple Crown, War Emblem didn't have it. Ashe dropped back to an eventual eighth-place finish, Magic Weisnerpassed him with his usual late kick. The all-time Belmont long-shotwinner, Savara, kept the lead by a half-length over Medaglia d'Oro.Magic, the fourth choice in the betting, finished fourth, earningAlberts $60,000.

Recently, she got a call from Thistledown, near Cleveland, and wasasked to bring Magic Weisner to Saturday's $300,000 Ohio Derby. Sheaccepted, and she will ship this morning. If Magic comes out of thatrace in good shape, she will start him in the much more competitive$1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in New Jersey onAug. 4.

'I may never sell him,' she said. 'I've never had a horse likehim. How often do you have a horse you can take anywhere? Not that Iwant to travel. He's going to be a star in Maryland. That's what weall want.'

The most recent would-be buyer of Magic Weisner, whom she had putoff, would like to run him for years to come 'in the classics inEurope.' Musing over the offer, she liked the idea of Magic as apopular horse overseas, receiving the finest treatment. 'You know,'she said, 'he might like that.'

Therein, probably, is the answer to how some wealthy horsemanmight get her to part with Magic Weisner. It doesn't matter how muchmoney is pushed on her; what matters to her is what someone can dofor the horse.

For now, she is accommodating Magic by taking him on the road, asunfamiliar as it is to her.

'I hear War Emblem is going to be at the Haskell,' she said, asMagic Weisner licked a peppermint from her hand. 'Hear anything aboutthat?'

You could hear it in her voice: She loves to win. She's ready totake on the big boys again.