{"id":513,"date":"2013-12-21T16:53:04","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T16:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.linda-rice.com\/?p=513"},"modified":"2013-12-21T16:53:10","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T16:53:10","slug":"gaining-ground-fall-winter-nytha-newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/gaining-ground-fall-winter-nytha-newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaining Ground – Fall\/Winter NYTHA Newsletter"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Andy Belfiore<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Only four trainers in the last dozen years\u00a0have been able to capture a championship at\u00a0Saratoga: Kiaran McLaughlin, Bill Mott, Todd\u00a0Pletcher, and Linda Rice. It was a\u00a0ground-breaking milestone for Rice, who\u00a0took down her first training title when she\u00a0bested perennial leader Pletcher by a single\u00a0victory in 2009 to become the first woman to\u00a0top the standings at a major racetrack.\u00a0Has her success made it easier for\u00a0women to make their way in the maledominated\u00a0sport of Thoroughbred racing?\u00a0“I’d like to think so,” Rice said.\u00a0It would be hard to believe otherwise.\u00a0Since her Spa title, Rice has been atop the\u00a0leaderboard at both Aqueduct and Belmont,\u00a0and she has steadily risen through the\u00a0national ranks to break into the top 25 this\u00a0year. Through Dec. 17, the Wisconsin native\u00a0had won 98 races and more than $4.68\u00a0million in purses. She is on track to hit 100\u00a0victories for the first time this year.<\/p>\n

But it has not been an easy climb, and\u00a0she is still not sure her dad, long-time\u00a0horseman Clyde Rice, is convinced she\u00a0made the right call on her career–despite the\u00a0fact that when she celebrated her 1,000th\u00a0win in 2011, it was with a horse owned by her\u00a0father.\u00a0“He was a little skeptical when I decided\u00a0to become a trainer,” Rice said. “He thought\u00a0it would have been easier if I had been one\u00a0of his sons. I don’t think he was thrilled when\u00a0I chose this path–not thrilled, but not\u00a0surprised, either.”\u00a0She added with a smile, “He might think I\u00a0made the right choice now, but he hasn’t\u00a0admitted to that yet.”\u00a0Rice was breaking babies by the time she\u00a0reached her early teens, and got hooked on\u00a0the sport while preparing horses like\u00a0champion Family Style for the track.\u00a0“She was one of my real pets as a\u00a0yearling turning 2-year-old,” she recalled. “It\u00a0was hard not to get emotionally involved and\u00a0invested.”\u00a0Despite studying computer science at\u00a0Penn State, she never seriously considered\u00a0a life away from the track. “I was anxious to\u00a0get back to what I loved,” she said.<\/p>\n

Rice took out her training license in 1987,\u00a0but the early years were a struggle. It was\u00a0difficult to get new owners, and difficult to\u00a0gain the respect of her peers.\u00a0“It wasn’t easy to attract clients who\u00a0would give me a chance with their horses,”\u00a0she remarked. “But, over time, I figured out\u00a0that winning races was the way to do it–and\u00a0that still holds true today.\u00a0“When I first started out, a lot of the\u00a0well-established trainers in New York didn’t\u00a0necessarily think I’d be around long,” Rice\u00a0continued. “That was the take I got–they\u00a0didn’t give me the kind of respect that they do\u00a0today. But I think\u00a0respect is\u00a0something that’s\u00a0earned, and it\u00a0would be that way\u00a0in any industry for\u00a0anyone, man or\u00a0woman.”<\/p>\n

Through the\u00a0years, Rice has\u00a0built her stable\u00a0from a handful of\u00a0horses to a\u00a050-strong string\u00a0employing 33\u00a0workers. Her\u00a0favorite horses have been City Zip, a\u00a0“tremendous competitor” who swept the\u00a02-year-old stakes at Saratoga in 2000; and\u00a0Soldier Field, a hard-knocking stakes horse\u00a0who won eight of 15 starts in 1998. She has\u00a0also developed Grade I winners Things\u00a0Change, Tenski and Lucifer’s Stone.\u00a0A measure of the respect she now\u00a0commands was in evidence more than a\u00a0decade ago, when veteran trainer Mike\u00a0Hernandez approached Rice to suggest she\u00a0run for election to the New York\u00a0Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association\u00a0Board. She was intrigued by the idea.\u00a0“I’d been in New York for at least 10\u00a0years, and I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.\u00a0This is my home, this is where I plan to stay,”\u00a0Rice said. “I don’t have a lot of interests\u00a0outside the Thoroughbred industry, and I\u00a0thought I would enjoy learning more about\u00a0New York racing.\u00a0“I grew up in the business and have a\u00a0long history in racing–I’m in the barns, I’m in\u00a0the trenches with the workers. I thought I had\u00a0something to contribute, and I thought I could\u00a0offer a female perspective to the Board.”\u00a0Rice was elected in 2002, the first year\u00a0she ran. She was part of the NYTHA team\u00a0that navigated through the NYRA bankruptcy\u00a0and franchise battle, and the arduous\u00a0process of bringing VLTs to Aqueduct, even\u00a0naming horses We Need VLT’s, Fight for\u00a0VLT’s and Victory for VLT\u2019s in the hopes of\u00a0focusing attention on the issue. She\u00a0acknowledged that NYTHA’s efforts on behalf\u00a0of New York’s horsemen are not over when it\u00a0comes to VLT revenue.\u00a0“The VLTs were a long\u00a0time coming, and now we\u00a0have to manage that\u00a0money well,” Rice said.\u00a0“We have to be wise about\u00a0how we spend it–be it\u00a0making improvements on\u00a0the backside, marketing\u00a0the sport, or using it to\u00a0help fill stalls. The cost of\u00a0living is very high in New\u00a0York; feed, hay, tack and\u00a0all other products are\u00a0more expensive here than\u00a0elsewhere. If we can give some financial\u00a0relief to the horsemen via workers’ comp,\u00a0health coverage, pension plans, etc., we can\u00a0attract higher quality stables, horses and\u00a0owners to New York. This will increase field\u00a0size, the daily handle and, in turn, the purses\u00a0will continue to rise.<\/p>\n

“There has also been a lot of discussion\u00a0about uniform medication rules and the\u00a0penalties for multiple violators to go along\u00a0with that,\u00a0and there\u00a0has been\u00a0talk about\u00a0installing a\u00a0synthetic\u00a0racing\u00a0surface in\u00a0New York to protect turf racing from bad\u00a0weather. There is a lot going on.”\u00a0Rice devotes a lot of energy to her duties\u00a0as Chair of the NYTHA Scholarship\u00a0Committee. It was a post she sought when\u00a0getting voted onto the Board.\u00a0“I wanted to be involved with kids who are\u00a0working to improve their lifestyles,” she\u00a0explained. “That was something I wanted to\u00a0be a part of, to be able to help them go to college and improve their way of life. It’s a\u00a0feel-good story. I don’t have children of my\u00a0own, and it gives me a connection with the\u00a0kids that I really enjoy. It’s a tremendous\u00a0program, and it’s amazing the positive impact\u00a0we’ve had on so many lives on the\u00a0backstretch.”\u00a0NYTHA provides 30-40 students,\u00a0backstretch workers and their immediate\u00a0dependents, with about $85,000 in\u00a0scholarships annually. The Committee also\u00a0brings in Barry Fox, a financial aid counselor\u00a0who helps the students find grants and\u00a0additional scholarships to help fund their\u00a0tuition.<\/p>\n

TAKE THE LEAD, NYTHA’s equine\u00a0retirement program, also has the full support\u00a0of the Rice stable. The trainer has sent\u00a0several horses on to second careers this\u00a0year. Both she and her owners donate\u00a0generously to the aftercare organizations\u00a0such as New Vocations that retrain those\u00a0horses, and her charges typically are\u00a0adopted in short order.\u00a0“Maybe the horse has a career-ending\u00a0ailment, or maybe he just doesn’t have\u00a0enough talent, but I want to identify the fact\u00a0that a horse isn’t going to be successful as\u00a0soon as possible and send him on his way,\u00a0rather than running him into the ground,”\u00a0Rice said. “It’s better for my horse, and it’s\u00a0better for my client. Because of that, I find my\u00a0horses are placed in new homes very\u00a0quickly.”\u00a0Having a retirement plan in place is just\u00a0one small key to running a successful racing\u00a0operation. Rice sets goals each year\u00a0designed to improve her stable and her staff,\u00a0implementing new ideas and new\u00a0technologies in order to get the best results.\u00a0She’d love to have horses to take to the\u00a0Breeders’ Cup and Triple Crown someday.\u00a0Be it stakes horse or claimer, though, she\u00a0looks forward to working toward bringing out\u00a0the most potential in each individual.\u00a0“Whether I’m buying a yearling or a\u00a02-year-old, or I’m claiming a horse, I really\u00a0enjoy taking that horse and studying its\u00a0pedigree, its conformation, the way it trains,\u00a0and figuring out how to get the most out of it,”\u00a0she said. “That’s something I started out\u00a0doing when I was 13 years old breaking\u00a0horses and I still enjoy it today–a lot.”\u00a0But, gender aside, the life of a trainer is\u00a0not an easy one. Does Rice ever question\u00a0the direction she chose in life?\u00a0“Well, when I was younger, I didn’t think\u00a0about some of the realities of being a horse\u00a0trainer–seven days a week, very few\u00a0vacations, early mornings year-round,” she
\nadmitted. “I never considered those as\u00a0negatives at the time. For the general\u00a0population, those could be seen as difficult\u00a0hurdles. But I think that there are a lot more\u00a0pros than cons, and I’m still very passionate\u00a0about what I do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Andy Belfiore Only four trainers in the last dozen years\u00a0have been able to capture a championship at\u00a0Saratoga: Kiaran McLaughlin, Bill Mott, Todd\u00a0Pletcher, and Linda Rice. It was a\u00a0ground-breaking milestone for Rice, who\u00a0took down her first training title when she\u00a0bested… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":514,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513\/revisions\/514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lindarice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}