The 19-day Aqueduct Racetrack spring meet, which ran from Mar. 30 to Apr. 30, closed out with jockey Manny Franco and trainer Linda Rice repeat as the leaders in their respective divisions after taking the titles at this year’s Aqueduct winter meet. Franco secured his second Big A spring meet riding title with 37 wins while Rice won her fourth Aqueduct spring meet training title with 17 wins.
Franco, a 28-year-old native of Carolina, Puerto Rico, earned the eighth riding title of his career.
“I’m very grateful for the help of every owner and every trainer,” said Franco. “I’m just happy to keep with the momentum. It means a lot and I try to take advantage of every opportunity I have. It’s been paying off.”
Jose Ortiz finished second with a record of 65-16-17-10 while Kendrick Carmouche secured third with a record of 82-14-10-15.
Rice enjoyed a record of 66-17-13-7 with $1,055,253 in total earnings, giving her a strike rate of 25.76% and in-the-money percentage of 56.06%. It was the 10th overall training title for Rice.
“It’s been a very good winter and spring,” she said. “New York is a tough place, so I’m very excited about it. Once we got through the winter meet I thought, ‘well that will be it for a while,’ but things fell into place and went well at the spring meet.”
Rob Atras finished second with a record of 37-9-5-4 while Chad Brown finished third with a 37-8-7-9 record.
Klaravich Stables ended the meet with a record of 18-4-4-3 and earnings of $270,622. It was a five-way tie for second between Peter Brant, Beast Mode Racing, Ten Strike Racing, Madaket Stables and Roger Cimbora, Jr., who each posted three wins at the meet.
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