Kerry Hohlbein, a former rider now working as a trainer at Laurel Park, missed out on her first stakes victory by a nose earlier this month when S S Sinatra lost a photo finish in the $75,000 Not For Love Stakes. She’s confident that more opportunities will come, however.  “He ran a great race and I’m not upset that he just got beat like that,” Hohlbein said of the 5-year-old gelding. “It would have been nice to win, but he ran great.”  After a career as a jockey and exercise rider, Hohlbein began training in 2022 and has since won 12 races in 122 starts. Two of those wins occurred at Laurel earlier this year in allowances where S S Sinatra and Crossland crossed the wire first. Hohlbein made her stakes debut in October when Crossland, then a 5-year-old gelding, finished ninth in the Maryland Million Classic. In Hohlbein’s second stakes try, S S Sinatra got her much closer to a milestone victory. :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Leaving the gate as a 9-1 outsider in the Not For Love, S S Sinatra had the unenviable task of vying for the early lead with Speediness, a two-times stakes winner generally regarded as one of the best Maryland-bred horses in the state. The story may have been different beyond a mile, but at a comfortable sprint distance, S S Sinatra put away his strong rival – only to give up the lead late to Circle P, another stakes winner, who needed every inch of the stretch to close for the win.  Disappointed but encouraged after the defeat, Hohlbein is confidently entering S S Sinatra in a $53,000 allowance in open company at Laurel on Saturday.  “Every time we ask him to step up, he shows up,” Hohlbein said. “Hopefully, he will again.”  Restricted stakes are harder to come by in Maryland in the coming months, but Hohlbein has S S Sinatra in sharp form. Her barn is small but efficient, and few races are off limits for her new star.  :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.