Winter strategy paying off for Rice

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – After finishing second in the standings each of the last five winters, trainer Linda Rice is poised to win her first Aqueduct winter meet title this season.

Following a month during which she won 16 races from her last 50 starters, Rice has 43 wins at the meet, eight more than three-time defending winter meet champion Rudy Rodriguez. There are six days remaining in the winter meet, which ends on March 31.

An Aqueduct winter meet title would be a first for Rice, who has won outright or shared the Aqueduct spring title three times. Rice also shared a Belmont spring/summer meet title. and in 2009 she became the first female to win a Saratoga trainer title with 20 wins.

“Absolutely,” Rice said when asked if winning an Aqueduct winter meet title was meaningful. “The winter meet at Aqueduct is important to me and my clients. I keep a lot of horses here in the winter. I think it’s a great time to run in New York.”

Rice’s run of successful winter meets coincided with a decision she made six years ago not to split her stable between Florida and New York.

“I thought we got positive results out of that,” said Rice, who has won 169 races over the last five Aqueduct winter meets.

Rice did maintain a small string at Gulfstream and Tampa Bay this winter – she won a race at both meets – consisting of mostly turf horses.

Training around the winter weather is the biggest hurdle for horsemen in the Northeast. In reality, the last two winters have been tame. After a cold snap that canceled racing for the first 10 days in January 2018, there was only one card canceled last winter over the last two months. This winter, there were only three full-card cancellations.

“Over the last five winters, maybe two were a little rough,” Rice said. “You just learn how to train around it. We got a nice barn where we can jog horses in the shed row when we have days you can’t go out to the track.”

For the second straight winter, Rice has enjoyed success with her string of female sprinters. Holiday Disguise, Split Time, and Startwithsilver won three of the seven stakes Rice won at Aqueduct last winter. They have won three of the six stakes Rice has won this winter, including Startwithsilver’s victory in Saturday’s Correction Stakes.

Rice also won three stakes with New York-bred male sprinters Blindwillie McTell and Bavaro. Blindwillie McTell recently returned to Rice’s barn after getting time off due to an infection. Rice said Blindwillie McTell got stepped on when he stumbled at the start of the Rego Park Stakes, which he won on Jan. 13. Blindwillie McTell is pointing to a division of the New York Stallion Stakes here on April 20.

Holiday Disguise, who won the Broadway Stakes on Feb. 16, could make her next start in the Grade 3 Distaff here on April 5. Holiday Disguise won that race last year.

Franco on a hot streak

As hot as Linda Rice has been over the last month, jockey Manny Franco has been hotter.

Over the last 13 Aqueduct cards at which he has ridden, Franco has won 30 races from 84 mounts (.357 winning percentage) to cement what will be his second straight Aqueduct winter riding title.

Franco has 90 wins, 24 more than Junior Alvarado in second and 40 more than both Dylan Davis and Jose Lezcano, who are tied for third. There are six days remaining in the winter season.

Since Feb. 21, Franco has had 10 multiple-win days, including a five-win day on March 10 and four-win days on Feb. 21 and Sunday.