Rice, Lezcano team up for five wins on Thursday card at Aqueduct

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Linda Rice won the Aqueduct winter meet trainer’s title by one after David Jacobson won five races on last Saturday’s final card of the season.

On Thursday, the first day of Aqueduct’s spring meet, Rice won five races herself, teaming with Jose Lezcano in all of them on an eight-race card.

It is believed to be the first time a trainer and jockey teamed up to win five races on one New York Racing Association card since Todd Pletcher and John Velazquez did it Aug. 30, 2004 at Saratoga.

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Thursday, Rice and Lezcano won races 2, 4, and 6 with favorites Solib ($3.70), Screaming Uncle ($2.90), and Cinderella’s Cause ($4.60). In race, 7, they teamed up to win a tough third-level allowance with Joey Freshwater ($9.90), last year’s Bay Shore Stakes winner, who flashed his best form winning 3 3/4 lengths in a solid time of 1:09.57 for six furlongs. Rice and Lezcano completed the five-win day with the first-time starter Freedsdale ($22), who upset a field of New York-bred maidens at 10-1.

It was the first five-win day for Rice, who won with all of her starters Thursday. Lezcano went 5 for 6, finishing second on even-money favorite Dolce Veloce in race 5 for trainer Jeremiah Englehart.

“I thought I had a couple of live horses, and thought I’d come away with a couple of wins today, two or three,” Rice said. “I didn’t think we’d get five necessarily.”

Rice was extremely pleased to see Joey Freshwater deliver a big-time performance. He came off a five-month layoff to win a second-level allowance in January but then came out of a fourth-place finish in a February allowance lame.

“I was thrilled with the way he ran, it was just a dominant performance,” Rice said. “And [Freedsdale] in the last race had been training beautifully. I thought he would run great, I wasn’t sure that would be a win. I was surprised he was such a long price.”

Lezcano was aboard for 15 of Rice’s 23 wins at the Aqueduct winter meet before the five wins on Thursday.

“Linda does a very good job with the horses. She puts the horses where they belong, she brings the horses ready to run,” Lezcano said. “Today, we did very good.”

On Friday, Rice has horses entered in seven of the eight races on the card. Lezcano is named on five of them.

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