Jacqueline Pino and family with NYTB Board members Vivien Malloy, Tom Gallo and NYTB Executive Director Jeff Cannizzo (Photo: Adam Coglianese)
The New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. (NYTB) presented its Gerald A. Nielsen, Sr. 2012 scholarship to Jacqueline Pino in a winner’s circle ceremony after the second race at Saratoga Racetrack on Friday, NYRA’s fourth annual “College Day at the Spa.”
Pino was selected from a strong pool of applicants for the $5,000 scholarship, which is designated for a student enrolled in an equine program at a New York State college.
A graduate of Hicksville High School in Hicksville, NY, Pino recently completed her freshman year at Cornell University, where she will major in Animal Science. She hopes to become involved in undergraduate research on equine laminitis in her advisor’s lab, and aspires to enroll in veterinary school after graduation with a specialty in equine medicine. She would like to continue at Cornell, and eventually hopes to practice in New York.
Pino developed an interest in thoroughbreds at an early age. Her family participates in the New York Breeding & Racing Program as breeders and owners (racing under the banner of Marjac Pino Stable), and she began going to the track after her family purchased their first horse when she was eight.
“Ever since my first visit [to the track], I was hooked,” Pino said. “While other students my age were reading books, I was busy memorizing the NYRA condition book.” When she graduated from high school and was asked what she wanted for a graduation gift, she said she wanted to go to the Kentucky Derby. Marjac Pino Stable’s homebred Minnie Punt, a New York-bred New York-sired multiple stakes winner, is named for Jacqueline’s late dog Minnie.
Pino’s academic and extracurricular activities include the Cornell Pre-Veterinary Society and Cornell Equitation, and she volunteers at Cornell CARE Research and the North Shore Animal League Adoption Center.
