Linda Rice

The Aqueduct Racetrack spring meet, which ran from Apr. 3 to Apr. 27, concluded with jockey Kendrick Carmouche earning his fourth riding title at a New York Racing Association's meeting. Carmouche led all other riders to secure his second Big A spring meet riding title with 21 wins after collecting his 4,000th career win Apr. 5. The 41-year-old claimed his second Aqueduct spring meet title after clinching the 2022 meeting with 19 wins. He completed the meet with a 73-21-9-17 record and earnings of $1,144,463, good for a win rate...

Linda Rice led all trainers and owners at the Aqueduct winter meet, which began Jan. 1, and Manny Franco topped the leading riders list as the circuit swaps over to the spring meeting starting Thursday, NYRA announced Sunday afternoon. Rice claimed 51 wins as a trainer to capture the title for the third consecutive year since the 2023 meet, and secured her fifth winter title overall. Her record of 217-51-38-29 was good for a win rate of 23.5% and an in-the-money strike rate of 54.38%. Meet highlights included Sand Devil...

For much of his career, Touchuponastar (Star Guitar) was regarded as a good Louisiana-bred. Nothing more. Coming into Saturday's GII New Orleans Classic, he had won 14 races from 20 starts, but 13 of those wins had come in Louisiana-bred company. He beat open company in the 2023 Delta Mile S., but had never won a graded stakes race. Nothing figured to change in the Classic as Touchuponastar, a $15,000 yearling purchase, was set to face Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), last year's 3-year-old male champion who cost $2.3-million at the...

'TDN Rising Star' Sand Devil (Violence) had his first work back since a runner-up effort in the GIII Gotham Stakes Mar. 1, covering a half-mile in 49 seconds flat in company on Saturday over the Belmont Park dirt training track. Trained by Linda Rice, Sand Devil is targeting the nine-furlong GII Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack Apr. 5--a 100-50-25-15-10 qualifier for the GI Kentucky Derby. "He went nice, went out five-eighths in 1:01 and 2, galloped out three-quarters in 13 and 3--we were very happy," Rice said of the...

Wynstock (Solomini), winner of the 2023 GII Los Alamitos Futurity, as well as last year's Los Alamitos Derby, has joined the barn of trainer Linda Rice. Bob Baffert had previously trained the 4-year-old on behalf of Edward Allred and Jack Liebau, who purchased him for $700,000 at the 2023 OBS April sale. "He looks beautiful," Rice said. "He shipped to the East Coast, and we sent him to Dr. Hogan and gave him a three-month break. He'd probably been in training for a year-and-a-half or better and I thought he...

Multiple stakes winner Scorching (Mo Town), aiming for his graded stakes debut in the Mar. 1 GIII Gotham Stakes, worked five furlongs in 1:04.22 (5/7) over the dirt training track at Belmont Park Saturday for trainer John Charalambous. It was the fourth local work for the Ontario-bred colt, who is stabled in the barn of trainer Michael Miceli. "He went by himself, and he breezed well," Charalambous said. "The track was slow. Sahin Civaci was supposed to breeze him, but he's hurt, so we called an audible and put one...

On March 3, 2019, Happy Farm (Ghostzapper) was claimed by trainer Jason Servis for $30,000 at Aqueduct. The dark bay gelding would remain in that barn for an entire year where he'd go on to finish no worse than second in seven starts - highlighted by a victory in the 2019 GIII Fall Highweight Handicap. Within days of Happy Farm's second-place finish in the GIII Tom Fool Handicap on March 7, 2020, Servis was arrested and charged following a multi-year investigation overseen by the FBI that identified over 30 people...

He made those that swallowed 1-5 really have to sweat it out, but in the end, Chester Broman's 'TDN Rising Star' Sand Devil (Violence) got to the wire first after a long stretch duel in Saturday's state-bred restricted Damon Runyon Stakes at Aqueduct, running his record to a perfect three wins from as many trips to the races. An impressive four-length winner of his six-furlong debut Dec. 8, the immaculately bred colt was dropping back slightly in trip after decimating first-level allowance rivals by better than a dozen lengths going...

Jockey Dylan Davis earned 209 wins across six race meets in 2024 to pace all riders and secure top honors as the leading rider at the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA). This is Davis's second year-end NYRA title, adding to a 2022 campaign which saw him win 186 races. This year, Davis, who is represented by agent Mike Migliore, scored a pair of meet titles at the Aqueduct winter [54] and Belmont at the Big A fall [44] meets. "It means a lot," said Davis. "Me and Mike put...

Still undefeated now in four starts, 'TDN Rising Star' With the Angels added a third consecutive stakes win Sunday with the Key Cents Stakes at Aqueduct. Stepped up in distance while facing New York-breds in each of her three prior starts, she cut back here to six furlongs (her winning debut distance) off the one-mile Maid of the Mist Stakes Oct. 27. Kept in this spot instead of chasing open company in next month's GII Demoiselle Stakes, With the Angels took all the money as the 1-5 chalk but, for...

While her connections passed on an opportunity in the Breeders' Cup next weekend, 'TDN Rising Star' With the Angels (Omaha Beach) kept things rolling in New York with yet another stakes win in Sunday's Maid of the Mist Stakes. Dubbed a 'Rising Star' at Saratoga with an 11 1/2-length romp against New York-breds Aug. 22, she stepped out an additional furlong and put 9 3/4 lengths on the field in the Joseph A. Gimma Stakes Sept. 22. The no-doubt favorite at 1-9 trying the flat mile Sunday, With the Angels...

With the Angels (Omaha Beach) earned a 'TDN Rising Star' tag with her 11 1/2-length maiden romp at Saratoga going six furlongs Aug. 22. Hammered down to 1-9 in her stakes debut with one extra furlong to race Sunday, the $350,000 OBS April grad struck the front shortly after the break and showed the way ahead of Valtellina (Complexity) through fractions of :23.40 and :47.17. Given her head off the far turn, With the Angels responded well to a shake of the reins and opened up under a hand ride...