OZONE PARK, N.Y. – By far, Linda Rice has won the most races this winter at Aqueduct, but even she isn’t on the roll trainer Jimmy Ferraro has been on the last few weeks.
Ferraro, whose stable numbers 19 horses, has won with five of his last six starters at Aqueduct since Feb. 26.
Sunday, Ferraro seeks to add to his recent run when he sends out Howling Wind against two Rice trainees in a New York-bred second-level allowance/optional $45,000 claiming sprint on the eight-race Aqueduct program.
Ferraro has been training since 1977. He said he recalls winning three consecutive races in the 1980s but never four straight like he did from Feb. 26 to March 1. After Fiscal Drag finished third in a claimer on March 5, Miss Jane Hathaway won at first asking on Thursday’s card.
While appreciative of the roll he’s been on, Ferraro quickly turns into trainer mode when he says, “What about when you lose 20 in a row? In 2013, I got shut out. First time I ever did. It takes true grit to stick in there.”
For the record, Ferraro went 0 for 30 in 2013. From Sept. 2012 through Jan. 25, 2014 he went 16 months without a win, a span covering 43 starters.
It definitely takes true grit to stick in there during this New York winter where weather has led to nine cancellations, missed training, make-up days, and short fields. Ferraro wasn’t necessarily planning on running Howling Wind on Sunday.
“I was planning on breezing her this weekend and then the racing office called up and said ‘We only have four horses in the race,’ ” Ferraro said. “So rather than breeze her we’ll take a shot.”
Howling Wind snapped an 11-race losing streak when she won a first-level New York-bred allowance by 7 1/4 lengths on Feb. 28, one of two winners Ferraro had on that day’s card. Ferraro credits jockey Reylu Gutierrez with getting Howling Wind turned around.
“He got her to relax and change her running style,” Ferraro said. “Last year, she was speed crazy. I think she cooked herself going to the lead all the time. We put Reylu on her and he tried something different and it seemed to be working.”
Ferraro would like to see a pace duel in Sunday’s 6 1/2-furlong race between Princess Becca and Munnings Express with Howling Wind sitting just off of that pair.
Munnings Express will likely be favored as she comes off a second-place finish in this condition on Feb. 21. Rice said if Munnings Express had an outside post she might instruct jockey Jose Lezcano to stalk, but she is in post 2.
Rice’s other entrant, Mommasgottagun, is returning from a near four-month layoff after she went off form last summer and fall.
While Rice frequently retools her stable at the claim box, Ferraro will be relying on a few older horses who got time off to help fortify the stable in the coming weeks or months.
General Banker, a 6-year-old gelding who has earned more than $800,000, is looking to snap an eight-race losing streak in an allowance race next weekend. Mama’s Gold, who won the Empire Classic in 2024 but who has been off since last summer, recently returned to the barn and should start breezing soon for a spring campaign.
Meanwhile, Ferraro appears to have something to work with in the 3-year-old filly Miss Jane Hathaway, a daughter of Central Banker owned and bred by James Corrao. Miss Jane Hathaway is missing the tips of her ears due to frostbite when she was a foal.
The way Ferraro understands it, the pregnant Flippity Flop was turned out on the farm on a cold February day.
“She decided to give birth and before the owner could grab her and put her indoors she got frostbite,” Ferraro said.
Ferraro said he wasn’t totally surprised Miss Jane Hathaway won first time out.
“She’d been training well, she showed a lot of guts,” Ferraro said. “It’s hard to win first out.”
Ferraro said Miss Jane Hathaway would be considered for the $200,000 Fourstar Crook, a 6 1/2-furlong dirt race, part of the New York Stallion Series, on April 11.
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