Chelsea Durand/NYRA
Trainer Linda Rice is considering starting promising 3-year-old Sand Devil in the Withers Stakes at Aqueduct.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The New York-bred 3-year-old Sand Devil may have earned himself a shot in a Kentucky Derby qualifying points race after winning a first-level statebred allowance race by 12 1/2 lengths Thursday at Aqueduct.
Trainer Linda Rice said she would consider a race like the $250,000 Withers Stakes, going 1 1/8 miles on Feb. 1, for Sand Devil, a son of Violence out of the Mineshaft mare Mineralogist, a three-time New York-bred stakes winner.
“To go from a mile to a mile and an eighth that fast, it’s a lot, but I’ve taken a few chances here and there,” Rice said.