Palace will run one final time in Gravesend

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Don’t shut the door on Palace just yet.

Though the 6-year-old New York-bred millionaire is still scheduled to join the stallion roster at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky in 2016, the multiple Grade 1-winning Palace will make one more start in the $100,000 Gravesend Stakes at Aqueduct on Dec. 26.

Trainer Linda Rice said owner Anthony Miuccio “is able to race him till the end of the year, and he wants to run him there.”

Palace, the winner of the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt and Grade 1 Forego at Saratoga during the summer of 2014, has just one win from six starts this year. His campaign got derailed when he stumbled badly and injured his foot at the start of the John Morrissey Stakes at Saratoga.

He was only beaten three-quarters of a length when fourth in the Grade 1 Vosburgh in September, won the Hudson against New York-breds in October, finished third in the Frank De Francis Memorial Dash at Laurel in November, and was beaten a head in the Fall Highweight on Thanksgiving Day.

“He’s been kind of a victim of tough trips and things this year, but he ran great in the Vosburgh, and he ran great in the Fall Highweight,” Rice said. “He had a terrible, troubled trip in Maryland.”

Palace might get the chance to avenge his loss to Green Gratto in the Fall Highweight, as Green Gratto is being pointed to the Gravesend as well. Alex the Terror, Fabulous Kid, and Joking are among those under consideration for the six-furlong race.