Rice weighs options for Matt King Coal

Trainer Linda Rice said Matt King Coal came out of his runner-up finish in the $1.25 million Charles Town Classic well and that she is considering two races for his next start.

“We were thinking about the Pimlico Special as a next race, but we might give him more time than that,” Rice said. “It’s more likely we go to the Suburban, with a race before to get him there.”

The $300,000 Pimlico Special, a 1 3/16-mile race, will be run May 19, a day before the Preakness. The Grade 2, $750,000 Suburban is a 1 1/4-mile race at Belmont on July 8.

Matt King Coal just missed winning the April 22 Classic when he was run down in the closing yards by Imperative, who won the three-turn, 1 1/8-mile race by a neck. Matt King Coal, who tracked the early pace, took the lead on the final bend and battled hard through the stretch.

Matt King Coal, a $250,000 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. purchase at age 2 by Lady Sheila Stable, has had a few stops and starts in his career and has raced only nine times.

“He showed talent at 2, and we got him to the Wood Memorial the next year, but he came out of the race with a fractured pelvis, so we gave him six months off,” Rice said. “He popped a curb in December, and we gave him another month, but now we have a healthy 4-year-old.”

Rice is off to a terrific start this year and through Thursday had won 65 races from 209 starters (31 percent). Despite sending out only a modest number of starters at Laurel Park, she is in contention for leading trainer honors there.

Rice is 24 for 48 at the Laurel meet and trailed leading trainer Kieron Magee by only two wins coming into the Friday card. The Laurel meet, which began Jan. 1, ends Sunday.