Rice's Belmont barn placed under quarantine
ELMONT, N.Y. – A barn at Belmont Park housing mostly horses trained by Linda Rice was placed under quarantine Wednesday after an unraced 3-year-old trained by Rice tested positive for the equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) on Tuesday, according to the New York Racing Association.
The unnamed male horse does not show any neurological symptoms of the virus, according to NYRA. Last week, the horse was sent to the Cornell Ruffian Equine Hospital across the street from Belmont after developing a fever and a mild respiratory issue. On Thursday, that horse was released from the hospital and was walked over to Belmont Park and placed in isolation in an empty barn. He will be re-tested next week.
Until that horse is deemed healthy, the 40 horses Rice has in Barn 44 and the six trainer David Duggan also has in that barn will not be able to race. Beginning Thursday, those horses were not allowed to train until after regular training hours were completed.
Starting Friday, the Belmont training track will close at 10 a.m. – 30 minutes earlier than usual – and then reopen from 10:15 to 11:15 for horses only in Barn 44 to train.
On Thursday, Rice’s horses simply jogged in the barn.
“It’ll be inconvenient, but it’s a little bump in the road, but we’ll get through it,” Rice said Thursday. “We’re sitting in a holding pattern until that horse is released from quarantine.”
Rice said Wednesday that she had all of her horses vaccinated for EHV-1 in early December.
The horses in Barn 44 will be monitored daily for fever and other signs of illness. Thus far, all horses in that barn who may have been exposed to the affected horse are considered to be afebrile and asymptomatic, according to NYRA.
While the quarantine remains in place, horses based at Belmont will not be allowed to race at Parx or Laurel Park, according to officials at those tracks. Parx is also not taking entries of horses based at Aqueduct.
Rice has some horses in Barn 45 at Belmont and she has 40 horses stabled at Aqueduct. Those horses will be permitted to race. Rice had to scratch four horses – including two morning-line favorites – from Friday’s card. She does not have any horses entered for Saturday’s card.
In 2017, Rice was the third-leading trainer on the NYRA circuit in wins with 113 and third in starts with 501. At the Aqueduct fall meet, which ran Nov. 3 through Dec. 31, she was the second-leading trainer in wins with 26 from 95 starters.
- additional reporting by Jim Dunleavy