Rice enjoys big weekend with Palace, Kid Cruz

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Linda Rice had a successful weekend, winning Friday’s Grade 2 True North with Palace and Saturday’s $150,000 Easy Goer Stakes with Kid Cruz. Both horses likely will be pointed to races on the July 5 Stars and Stripes card at Belmont.

Palace is being pointed to the $400,000 Belmont Sprint Championship Invitational (formerly the James Marvin, run at Saratoga), and Kid Cruz is a candidate for the Grade 3, $200,000 Dwyer Stakes.

Kid Cruz bounced back from an eighth-place finish in the Preakness with a last-to-first, three-quarter-length victory in the Easy Goer, run at the same 1 1/16-mile distance of the Dwyer. He earned a career-best 97 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance. Rice had been considering the Belmont Stakes for Kid Cruz but had no regrets about skipping it.

“I’m so happy that we went this direction – get him back to his winning ways, get his head back in the game – so I was very pleased,” Rice said.
Rice said she wants to get Kid Cruz to the Travers on Aug. 23 at Saratoga and will use either the Dwyer or the Jim Dandy to get there.

“The Travers, to me, is one of the things on my to-do list,” Rice said. “We’re going to see if we can gracefully get to the Travers; not sure how we’re going to do that yet.”

Palace came off a 3 1/2-month layoff to win the True North, running six furlongs in 1:08.29 and earning a 102 Beyer.

“For him to run 1:08 and 1 and win a Grade 2 off the bench is a testament to what a nice horse he is,” Rice said.