Saratoga: Linda Rice's realistic plan for success pays off

Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Linda Rice is on a roll, riding momentum she believes she cannot maintain this summer at Saratoga.

She owns four consecutive training titles at New York Racing Association tracks, most recently securing the crown at Belmont Park’s spring-summer meet. She earned her place in history by becoming the first woman to capture a training title on a major circuit when she shocked the racing world by finishing atop the Saratoga standings in 2009.

With so much going her way entering this Saratoga meet, does Rice think it can happen again? Sorry,  but her answer will not be what her fans want to hear.

“No, I don’t,” she said in her plain-spoken way. “Look, I was thrilled to death to win the Belmont meet. I didn’t expect that to happen.”

She expects Chad Brown and Todd Pletcher to vie for the H. Allen Jerkens Award. Her aim is to top the 14 victories she notched last year at the tradition-rich upstate New York track.

“I want to set realistic goals,” she said. “If we surpass those, wonderful.”

One of Rice’s greatest assets, one that helped her emerged as one of the leading female trainers of all time, is her ability to keep it real.

For her, that means intently focusing on the claiming game rather than reaching for the stars at high-priced sales. She learned that lesson over time.

“I used to buy lots of 2-year-olds and yearlings. The market became so competitive and the prices became so high,” said Rice, 59. “If I bought a horse for $180,000 at a sale, I had to run it against about $10 million worth of horses. I felt that the deck was stacked against us, so I took a different approach and started claiming horses.”

Rice went on, “I still have 2-year-olds in my barn. I’m still running 2-year-olds and I love 2-year-olds. I love yearlings and weanlings. I love going to those auctions but, at some point when you are not able to bring home the horses you would like to be training, you have to take another approach.”

The winner of more than 2,300 races lifetime believes she has a better idea of what she is getting for the money when she dips into the claiming ranks and she plans to be very active in that all-important facet of the game at Saratoga.

“I like the fact that there is a set price,” she said. “When you go to an auction, you might tell a client ‘This horse should go for $150,000.’ And he goes for $350,000 and you come home and you’re pretty disappointed. Granted, you might have to win a five-way shake when you are claiming, so it’s no easy game any way you look at it.”

The daughter of the late Clyde Rice, a renowned horseman, made what must have been a chilling decision for some of her employees some years ago when she abandoned heading to Florida for the winter to compete in New York year-round.

She became frustrated with a number of elements connected to wintering in Florida and opted to brave bitter winter days at Aqueduct, where field sizes were smaller while the purse structure remained strong.

“I didn’t feel like it was helping us in any way, shape or form,” she said. “So I changed direction.”

She swept the fall, winter and spring titles at Aqueduct before her most recent success at Belmont Park. She closed the Belmont stand with a 140: 34-18-23 to topple Brown, who had delivered the title seven years in a row.

Despite her doubts about emerging as Saratoga’s leading trainer, Rice is off to a solid start. She combined with Jose Ortiz on Thursday to take the opening race of the 40-day meet with Bustin Bay. They won again on Friday, Saturday (twice) and Sunday.

And Rice is atop the win column with a record of 13: 5-4-1.

Just saying.