Rice duo in top form for Interborough

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Though Hot Fudge had just won a third-level allowance race at Belmont Park in June, trainer Linda Rice wasn’t impressed. The filly bore out badly in the race, and Rice felt it wouldn’t be smart to go on with her through the summer.

Following several months off, Hot Fudge appears to have come back a better and stronger mare. On Dec. 1, she won another allowance and eight days later the Garland of Roses. She brings that winning form into Saturday’s $150,000 Interborough Stakes at Aqueduct.

Hot Fudge, who has won her last four dirt races, and Ain’t Broke, who has won her last three, give Rice a strong one-two punch in the Interborough, a seven-furlong race for fillies and mares. The Interborough drew a field of seven, including the multiple graded stakes winner Dr B who makes the final start of her career before she is scheduled to be bred to Flightline.

Hot Fudge is 6 for 8 overall on dirt, with four of those wins coming at Aqueduct. She is 2 for 2 at seven furlongs. Hot Fudge has done her best work on the front end, but did take advantage of a hot pace to win the Garland of Roses from off the pace.

“I wheeled her back on short rest because it was lying right in front of us,” Rice said. “It obviously worked out nice. She’s had time now and she’s trained very well. It’s just a matter of whether she’s the best horse in the race.”

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Ain’t Broke, who was a $75,000 claim last September, has won two straight allowance races for Rice. In her most recent win, she made an eye-catching last-to-first move around the turn, beating next-out winner Starship Defiant by five lengths.

“I knew she’d come running but I didn’t expect her to go from last to first around the turn, so that was pretty impressive,” Rice said.

As this will be her stakes debut, Ain’t Broke will race without the anti-bleeding medication Lasix for just the third time in her career. Ain’t Broke finished fifth in the first two starts of her career, both at age 2 and both without Lasix.

Hot Fudge breaks from post 6 under Kendrick Carmouche, while Ain’t Broke has post 7 under Eric Cancel.

Dr B won the Grade 3 Go for Wand at Aqueduct in 2022 and didn’t win again until she took the Go for Wand again in 2023. Throughout her career, Dr B has competed well against the top female sprinters in the country, including Goodnight Olive and Echo Zulu.

“She’s been consistent, she’s a hard-trying filly, we took big shots with her and she never let us down,” trainer Butch Reid said. “She’s all you can ask for, a very sound, very consistent filly.”

Dr B’s two wins in the Go for Wand came in front-running fashion, so it figures Jose Lezcano will have her on or close to the pace Saturday from post 5.

Mosienko, a 7-year-old mare coming off an allowance win last out, Rosebug, Self Isolation, and Secret Love complete the field.

The Interborough goes as race 8 on a nine-race card that begins at 12:20 p.m.

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