Linda L. Rice (born March 7, 1964) is an American Thoroughbred horse racing trainer and

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. A trainer of graded stakes race winners and licensed since 1987, she has won multiple trainer titles at major race meets in the eastern United States.

Background

The daughter of trainer

Clyde Rice Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a to ...

who died on January 30, 2017, her brothers Curt, Bryan and Wayne also became involved in Thoroughbred racing. Since 2002, Rice has been a board member of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (NYTHA).

Notable runners

In 2000, Rice trained the colt

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, from the

Adena Springs Adena Springs is a Thoroughbred horse breeding operation owned by Frank Stronach and his family. The main farm is located in Paris, Kentucky, with satellite locations in Florida and Ontario, Canada. Adena Springs has won the Eclipse Award for Ou ...

breeding farm of

Frank Stronach Frank Stronach (born 6 September 1932) is an Austrian and Canadian businessman and politician. He is the founder of Magna International, an international automotive parts company based in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, Granite Real Estate, and The ...

, one of only four horses to win the

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* Hop ...

, Saratoga Special, and

Sanford Stakes The Sanford Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually during the third week of July at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. A six furlong sprint race, the Grade III event is open to two-year-old horses. Inaug ...

for two-year-olds. On August 18, 2008, at the Saratoga track, Rice's horses finished 1-2-3-4 in the Mechanicville Stakes. In 2015, La Verdad was voted the Eclipse Award for

American Champion Female Sprint Horse The American Champion Sprint Female Horse award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually to the top female horse in sprint races usually run at a distance of 6 or 7 furlongs. This category honoring female sprinters became par ...

, the first horse trained by Rice to be honored with a year-end championship.

Career Record

On January 12, 2020, Linda Rice won the 2000th race of her career when Scilly Cay captured the Rego Park Stakes at

Aqueduct Racetrack Aqueduct Racetrack is a Thoroughbred horse racing facility and casino in the South Ozone Park, Queens, South Ozone Park and Jamaica, Queens, Jamaica neighborhoods of Queens, New York City, United States. Aqueduct is the only racetrack locate ...

Training titles

In 2009, Rice became the first woman in the modern era to win a trainer's title at a major U.S. racing circuit. She did so at Saratoga Race Course. She won the award with 75 starters, to the 135 starters of second-place finisher Todd Pletcher. In addition to her win at Saratoga Racecourse in 2009, in 2011-2012 Rice won back-to-back training titles at

. In July 2011 she tied Todd Pletcher for top honors in the Spring/Summer meet at

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905. It is operated by the non-profit New York Racin ...

. In 2017, having taken a stable of runners to the Laurel Park Spring meet in Maryland for the first time, Rice tied for the training title in number of wins, doing so with a 53% winning percentage. She had 51 starters to the 128 of her co-win leader, Keiron Magee. In 2023 Rice won or shared in all but one of the training titles across the NYRA tracks (Aqueduct, Belmont Park and Saratoga). She finished the year with 165 wins, establishing a new NYRA single-year record for trainers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Linda L. 1964 births Living people American female horse trainers Sportspeople from Racine, Wisconsin American horse trainers 21st-century American women