Rice off to red-hot start at spring meet as Yo Daddy takes Excelsior
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OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Linda Rice dominated the Aqueduct winter meet with 62 winners, but only one of those came in a stakes races.
Rice is off to a dominant start at the Aqueduct spring meet and on Saturday she got her first stakes victory when Yo Daddy rallied from off the pace under Jose Lezcano to win the $150,000 Excelsior by 1 3/4 lengths. Interceptor finished second by 7 1/2 lengths over Classicist, the 4-5 favorite. Stowaway, Otello, and Omaha Omaha completed the order of finish. Over and Ollie scratched to run in a race at Laurel.
The win was the third of what became four straight wins to start Saturday’s 12-race Aqueduct card. Her streak – which was actually five straight since she won Friday’s seventh – came to an end when starter Sweetest Princess finished second in race 5.
Rice gave Yo Daddy a break following his well-beaten second-place finish to Parchment Party in the Belmont Gold Cup last June 6. Yo Daddy, now 5, came back with a sharpt allowance win at 1 1/8 miles before finishing second in the three-horse Stymie Stakes going one mile.
“We went in there by default, we planned on running in the Excelsior all along, wasn’t sure how we were going to get there, if we were going to train into it and I thought ‘let’s run., “ Rice said.
How much that race helped Yo Daddy in the Excelsior is uncertain. Lezcano believes that Yo Daddy is simply a better horse mentally this year than he was in past years.
“This year I feel like he’s come back better than before, he seems more relaxed, he breaks before he wants to run off, now he’s sitting, [will] do whatever you ask him,” Lezcano said.
In the Excelsior, Lezcano had Yo Daddy in fourth, only about three lengths off the pace as Otello set the early fractions. Going into the far turn, Interceptor came through on the inside and Classicist made a three-wide bid as Otello retreated.
Yo Daddy gradually got to the leaders turning for home, went by a tiring Classicist and then overtook Interceptor while bearing in some, though he was clear by that point. Yo Daddy, a 5-year-old gelding by Yoshida who Rice and Winning Move Stables claimed for $50,000 in April 2024, covered the 1 1/4 miles in 2:03.72 and returned $7.66 as the second choice.
“We ran him pretty aggressively for a year and a half, then last summer at Saratoga after I ran him in the [Belmont Gold Cup] I could tell he was a tired horse and needed a break, so we gave him that break and I thought the horse could come back super as a 5-year-old and he sure did,” Rice said.
Rice’s four wins through the first half of Saturday’s card gave her eight through the first 23 races run at the spring meet that runs through April 26. There are sure more to come.
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