SportBLX Thoroughbreds<\/a><\/strong> circled the April 4 Wood Memorial at the same track. That, of course, was not to be when New York, faced with myriad issues, became the epicenter for COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThey debated whether to run in the May 2 Arkansas Derby, which attracted so many starters it was run in two divisions, and decided against that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo get to Arkansas from New York is a very long van ride and it was going to have to be a van,\u201d Rice said. \u201cI knew that (Bob) Baffert was bringing two very tough horses with him, not to mention that the entire 3-year-old crop was going to be running in Arkansas. We just didn\u2019t think it made sense to travel that far for a race that was going to be that tough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baffert indeed secured both divisions, with Charlatan and Nadal. Charlatan is now sidelined through the Sept. 5 Kentucky Derby with an injury, though. Nadal was retired with a condylar fracture, underscoring how brutal the game can be for all trainers, regardless of gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rice and Hall then pondered the May 23 Matt Winn Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs. \u201cOnce again, I didn\u2019t see a point in traveling our horse and wearing him out to run him against Maxfield for $150,000,\u201d Rice said. Maxfield prevailed in the Matt Winn as she anticipated before he, too, was hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Max Player is set to give Rice her first Belmont starter since Supervisor ran fifth in 2003. She admits she wishes the preparation could have been different for what has turned into the opening leg of the Triple Crown and will be run as a one-turn, 1 1\/8-mile contest rather than the traditional 1 1\/2-mile marathon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIdeally, we\u2019d love to have a prep coming into this,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we are where we are. He\u2019s training very well, and we\u2019re excited about running him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Max Player took second in his Nov. 12 debut at Parx Racing before improving in his next start there to draw off by 4 1\/4 lengths on Dec. 17. He struggled with kickback, leading jockey Dylan Davis to give him a wide trip in the 1 1\/8-mile Withers. Still, he easily turned back Shotski, yet another sophomore off the Triple Crown trail. Shotski has what was described as minor bone bruising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rice emphasized that she and Hall are taking a long view in managing Max Player, an April 28 foal, the way they have. \u201cWe felt there would be a lot of races ahead of us and we didn\u2019t want to travel our horse and wear him out before all of these opportunities showed up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so Max Player, who ranks 32nd with 10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, breezed six furlongs in a sharp 1:12.25 seconds one week before the Belmont Stakes. It represented his 11th breeze since the Withers as he prepares to confront Florida Derby champ Tiz the Law and other more accomplished members of his class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although history does not appear to be at hand for Rice, who knows what else may unfold in what already has been a season no one could have scripted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would be great to be the first woman,\u201d Rice said. \u201cIt would be great for anybody to saddle a Belmont winner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article was written by Tom Pedulla and was published on Horse Racing Nation <\/em>June 15<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Linda Rice\u00a0was 17 and she told her father, Clyde, of her ambition to follow in his footsteps by becoming a trainer, his reply said much about the industry and the world at that time. \u201cIt would be easier,\u201d he… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,48,53,29,17,26,52,54],"class_list":["post-2066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-news","tag-belmont","tag-belmont-stakes","tag-george-hall","tag-honor-code","tag-linda-rice","tag-max-player","tag-new-york","tag-triple-crown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2068,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2066\/revisions\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}