OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Linda Rice won four races at Aqueduct on Jan. 2, a day that set the tone for her winter in New York.
Entering the final week of racing for the three-month winter meet, Rice has 48 wins, 31 more than her nearest rival, Rick Dutrow. Through 43 cards of racing, Rice has started 201 horses and has had 39 individual horses win. That includes La Banquera, a horse Rice claimed for $25,000 last November who has won three times this year by a combined 20 1/2 lengths and might be stakes-bound for her next start.
When the meet concludes next Sunday, Rice will have captured her third consecutive winter meet trainer’s title.
“I’m New York-based, I focus on New York racing, I don’t run out of town a lot, I feel like I want to use my ammunition right here,” Rice said. “The purses are pretty good. I think we’ve had a good winter, obviously.”
If there is an area where Rice would like to see better results, it’s in the stakes category. Rice won two stakes this winter - the Damon Runyon with Sand Devil and the Say Florida Sandy with Sheriff Bianco. She has won just three graded stakes over the last two years, two with the sprinter Joey Freshwater.
“I’m hoping that we can develop some more stakes horses,” Rice said. “I’ve claimed some horses and turned them into stakes horses, but the better horses I’ve had over the past several years have been from breeders.”
Some of those horses include Arctic Arrogance and El Grande O, both of whom tried the New York route to the Triple Crown for Chester Broman and Barry Schwartz, respectively.
Rice is again trying to use the New York path to the Kentucky Derby with Sand Devil, a New York-bred son of Violence owned and bred by Broman. Sand Devil won his first three starts - all against New York-breds - before running second, 3 1/4 lengths behind Flood Zone, in the Grade 3 Gotham on March 1.
Sand Devil will attempt to earn his way into the Kentucky Derby when he runs next in the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial on April 5. It will be Sand Devil’s first start around two turns and at 1 1/8 miles.
“I could see him really coming to hand the last six weeks of 2024, he was really showing up in the morning in his workouts,” Rice said. “I thought he could be the right kind. Wood, did I have that in my mind? No, but I had stakes-caliber in mind.”
On Sunday, Sand Devil worked six furlongs in 1:14.11 over the Belmont Park training track, according to Daily Racing Form. He worked on the inside of Uncle Jim, a recent $50,000 claim by Rice who is possible for the Bay Shore Stakes on April 19.
Beginning the work at the half-mile pole, Sand Devil went in splits of 13.14 seconds, 25.06, and came to the wire in 48.46, then continued out in 1:01.28 and 1:14.11.
“I was happy with his breeze today, he was going out all on his own without any help,” Rice said.
Asked about the 1 1/8 miles for Sand Devil, Rice said, “I feel pretty good about it. You never know until you run them.”
There were 35 nominations to the Wood Memorial, a race that offers its first five finishers qualifying points (100-50-25-15-10) toward the May 3 Kentucky Derby.
Among those expected for the Wood are Captain Cook, winner of the Grade 3 Withers; Grande, 2 for 2 for Todd Pletcher; Hill Road, third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Tampa Bay Derby; Statesman, a winner of two straight at Tampa; Omaha Omaha, third in the Withers and Virginia Derby; Tiger Twenty Four, a five-length maiden winner going a mile at Gulfstream, and My Mitole, fourth in the Gotham.
With the Angels sidelined
The New York-bred filly With the Angels, who won three stakes as part of a 4 for 4 juvenile campaign, has been stopped on due to an unspecified issue, trainer Linda Rice said.
With the Angels, who worked three times since returning to Belmont Park following a two-month freshening, will be out of training for 60 days, Rice said. She likely won’t resurface until sometime during the Saratoga meet.
With the Angels, a daughter of Omaha Beach, won her debut by 11 1/2 lengths at Saratoga. During the fall, at Aqueduct, With the Angels won the Joseph A. Gimma by 9 3/4 lengths, the Maid of the Mist by 3 1/4 lengths, and closed out her campaign with a two-length victory in the Key Cents on Nov. 17.
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